The United States announced joint military flight drills in Guyana on Thursday as tensions over a contested oil-rich region with neighbor Venezuela prompted the U.N. Security Council to call an urgent meeting.
A border feud has been spiraling over the Essequibo region, which has been administered and controlled by Guyana for more than a century, although Venezuela also claims the disputed area. Venezuela recently conducted a referendum, which it claims citizens supported, that aims to give Venezuela authority over the Essequibo region. Guyanese officials said in response that the country is preparing to defend itself and its borders in case of an invasion.
The spat is drawing in the international community, with the U.S. announcement of military exercises the latest sign that Washington is alarmed at the threat from the authoritarian leftist Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The United States announced joint military flight drills in Guyana on Thursday as tensions over a contested oil-rich region with neighbor Venezuela prompted the U.N. Security Council to call an urgent meeting.
The spat is drawing in the international community, with the U.S. announcement of military exercises the latest sign that Washington is alarmed at the threat from the authoritarian leftist Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro.
Guyana’s president, Irfaan Ali, told CBS News in a Tuesday interview that the country would prepare military assets with its allies to ready itself for “the worst case scenario,” but said he hopes the conflict does not come to that.
“Our first line of defense is diplomacy,” Ali told CBS News, adding that Guyana has reached out to leaders abroad, including in the U.S., India and Cuba, hoping that “they can encourage Venezuela to do what is right, and ensure that they do not act in a reckless or adventurous manner that could disrupt the peace within this zone.”
In Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also voiced “growing concern” about the tension on his country’s northern border, telling a summit of the Mercosur regional bloc that “if there’s one thing we don’t want here in South America it’s war.”
The Brazilian army said Wednesday it was reinforcing its presence in the northern cities of Pacaraima and Boa Vista, both of which share a border with Venezuela, as part of efforts “to guarantee the inviolability of the territory.”
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