Prevent Venezuela from annexing Guyana’s oil-rich territory

All indications are that Venezuela is set to use its military might to annex a huge chunk of Guyana’s sovereign oil-rich offshore territorial waters. With the Guyana Defence Force no match for Venezuela's arsenal of fighter jets, tanks, vessels and troops, the only strategic option available is to immediately seek the protection of the United States, with an urgent request for U.S. military aircraft carriers to be deployed off Guyana’s Atlantic coast. 

President Barack Obama has already officially listed Venezuela as a threat to the national security of the United States and consequently sanctioned seven of the Spanish-speaking nation’s officials for human rights abuses. There can be no denying that any threat to America’s national security from Venezuela is also a threat to Guyana’s as well, given the fact that U.S. companies will be spearheading Guyana’s evolving oil industry.

In early May 2015, U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil announced the discovery of significant deposits of oil in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana. With a population of under a million, the new oil industry could propel Guyana from a little-known Third World 83,000 square-miles nation, into economic supremacy.

Venezuela, which has an illegal claim to a major part of Guyana’s territory, is upset over its neighbour’s recent historic discovery of “elephant oil wells” offshore, which the Guyana government has said are comparable to those of West Africa. With the discovery of oil in Guyana in such mind-boggling quantities, President Nicholas Maduro of Venezuela is finding it difficult to concede that the geo-political landscape in the Caribbean is about to change forever.

In his desperation to stifle Guyana's development and maintain the balance of power, President Maduro has taken the road of psycho-politics by way of a decree extending its territorial claim to include most of Guyana's territorial waters, effectively land locking the country.

                                                          Venezuelan military jets

Raphael Trotman, Guyana’s Minister of Governance, defied Venezuela’s threats of aggression in a parliamentary speech this week, warning Maduro not to underestimate Guyana’s desire to defend itself. Minister Trotman must not only be commended, but should communicate Guyana’s official position through diplomatic channels to whip up international opposition against all acts of aggression towards Guyana by the Venezuelans.

Of note too, is the fact that the opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/Civic) should be in parliament so that Guyana can speak with a united voice on this subject of national defence. Even if the PPP/C has a problem with the election results, it should realize that boycotting parliament, in protest of losing a free and fear election, at a time when the country is facing an imminent invasion from a more powerful neighbour, only makes Guyana appear weaker in the eyes of the Venezuelans.

Ironically, any aggression by Venezuela could destabilize the already fragile economic climate in the Spanish-speaking nation which has seen its fair share of discontent and domesttic unrest because of shortages of basic necessities. Perhaps the hand-picked successor to late leftist President Hugo Chavez feels that annexation of sovereign territory is a quick fix to his country’s economic woos.

Quoting verbatim from The Globe and Mail, one of Canada’s leading newspapers: “In the serene private clubs of Caracas, there is no milk, and the hiss of the cappuccino machine has fallen silent. In the slums, the lights go out every few days, or the water stops running. In the grocery stores, both state-run shops and expensive delicatessens, customers barter information: I saw soap here, that store has rice today. The oil engineers have immigrated to Calgary, the soap opera stars fled to Mexico and Colombia. And in the beauty parlours of this nation obsessed with elaborate grooming, women both rich and poor have cut back to just one blow-dry or manicure each week.” (With oil economy running on fumes, Venezuela on the edge of the apocalypse: The Globe and Mail, Toronto, February 12, 2014)

Ever since Guyana's new government assumed power on May 11, 2015, led by retired Brigadier, President David Granger, Guyana has told Venezuela in no uncertain terms that it will use all the national, regional and international resources available to it to protect its territorial integrity.

                                                   A Guyana Defence Force helicopter

Back in the late the 1980s when former president of Guyana Desmond Hoyte implemented his Economic Recovery Program (ERP), backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government was restricted from military spending and was forced to focus on economic development. Consequently, the Guyana Defence Force suffered severely from a lack of funding to purchase modern aircraft and vessels. With this in mind, it is imperative that Guyana uses the projected profits from its recently discovered oil to retool the Coast Guard and the Guyana Defence Force Air Corps to effectively challenge any offensive from Venezuela.                                    

The May 2015 decree by President Maduro to extend Venezuela's original territorial claim to a major portion of Guyana's territory, to include the English-speaking nation's vital offshore waters, is a blatant attempt at ensuring that Guyana remains underdeveloped for another 40 years and dependent on Venezuelan oil.