Guyana and Venezuela signed an agreement that said they would “not threaten or use force against one another in any circumstances” to resolve their competing claims to the Essequibo region. The talks came after the Brazilian government pressured both nations.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Guyanese President Irfaan Ali met in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, for talks negotiated by Brasília and the UN. The discussions centered on the region of Essequibo.
Essequibo is currently controlled by Guyana but claimed by Venezuela. The region has substantial oil resources offshore. Essequibo makes up about two-thirds of Guyana. On December 4, the people of Venezuela voted to claim sovereignty over the region.
The South American neighbors inked a three-page agreement that emphasized the dispute over the Essequibo will not be resolved by force. The deal says both nations agree to “not threaten or use force against one another in any circumstances” and “refrain, whether by words or deeds, from escalating any conflict.”
The agreement was the result of an “excellent day of dialogue,” Maduro touted. “I thank the President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, for his candor and willingness to engage in broad dialogue on all the issues addressed, directly,” the Venezuelan Leader posted on X. “I am satisfied to have been face to face as I wanted it for a long time. It was worth it to raise the flag of truth, to raise our historical reasons and to seek, with Bolivarian Peace Diplomacy, the path of dialogue and understanding to channel this historical controversy.”
The Venezuelan X account posted, “Handshake seals the willingness of Venezuela and Guyana to continue the dialogue in order to resolve the controversy in relation to the Essequibo territory.”
The two countries agreed to meet again in Brazil. The Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines said resolving the dispute would take several rounds of talks.
The Guyanese leader emphasized he is currently unwilling to make any territorial concession. “All of this belongs to Guyana,” Ali said during a break in negotiations. “Guyana is not seeking war, but Guyana reserves the right to work with all of our partners to ensure the defense of our country.”
The US has signaled support for Guyana by announcing joint military drills that Venezuela slammed as provocative. US Southern Command has conducted flight operations in Guyana during recent days.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
Good News…!
Keep us the f*ck out of there. The agreement is the reasonable way to conduct diplomacy, not guns. Of course we are going to support Guyana. Exxon/Mobile as plunked down stuff there. All this while Mr. Climate Change Biden is in office, the fellow who signed off more oil and gas leases than Trump. I voted for Biden, and will not do it a second time. Of all the candidates, I prefer Alfred E. Newman. The slogan? What, Me Worry???
Write Alfred in. Write in friends and pets. Pay down your credit card. Cut back consumption spending. Do not eat food and beverages packaged in hot plastic jars or bottles. Plant a garden.
Now if we can just isolate these two true men alone together and keep the rest of the world away from it all for a minute..
It’s good they are not using force to solve their territorial dispute and the US (the world’s biggest meddler) will support Guyana if there is a war and the two nations are settling it without US Interference.
It’s also good that the other world’s meddler, Russia, is busy invading and annexing Ukraine, otherwise Putin too would be all over Venezuela providing military support.
“R/P (v) (n).”
It’s getting tiresome to type & my phone sux with Copy / Paste in Disqus some days.
“The US has signaled support for Guyana by announcing joint military drills that Venezuela slammed as provocative. US Southern Command has conducted flight operations in Guyana during recent days.”
Throwing the US at the end is a complete BS given that other States are more involved in this conflict (i.e. Brazil). Additionally, Russia supports Venezuela and a there’s a lot of subject matter to unpack.
The US and Guyana have an established security cooperation agreement for many years now so if they are conducting bilateral exercises in Guyana, that for sure, has been at the request and approval of Guyana.
I wouldn’t trust Maduro on this “agreement.” There’s a reason why he conducted a referendum. I’m sure Guyana are not trusting Maduro and will continue monitoring the situation as Maduro could at any time pull a Putin and find a pretext to invade.
Maduro conducted a referendum to find out what the people want to do.
Democracy is a foreign concept in corporatist US.
Maduro conducted a”referendum so that he could claim the people want him to do what he wants to do. And made damn sure it delivered the answer he wanted to hear.
You don’t seem to be able to accept that Latin America has survived almost six hundred years of gruesome colonization and evolved beyond totalitarianism as practiced br fake democracies of the still colonial west. President Maduro os under pressure by the US to destroy a democracy that corporatists fear will infect populstions laboring western capitalist central planning funded by borrow and spend democrats and republicans. Study a bit on vivir bien; living well in balance with physical laws even the Earth and Sol do not question.
“You don’t seem to be able to accept that Latin America has survived almost six hundred years of gruesome colonization”
I certainly accept that.
“and evolved beyond totalitarianism as practiced br fake democracies of the still colonial west”
True, to the extent that their fake democracies smirk and wink while pretending to be democracies instead of doing it with a straight face.
The laboratory of Latin American evolution toward democracy has revealed an interesting constant; 17% of a given population tends to be right-wing. The power of a very small press ownership class within that seventeen percent has the ability to brainwash the rest of the people and the price of that brainwashing goes up every day. There comes an asymptote on the near horizon, right-wing corporatism spends more and more to overcome dawning awareness of the masses until the propaganda cost exceeds benefits and the interest on deficit spending exceeds what is required for governmental function.
Political evolution cannot proceed in a brainwashed population so debt piles up.
Happens a lot. A referendum in the province I live, on switching from FPTP to STV voting, was almost openly designed to fail.
The Establishment is fine with democracy until democracy threatens the Establishment.
What the people from Venezuela would really want to do is to get out of the misery that Chavez and now Maduro put them in, in spite of being an oil rich country.
But you wont admit that because you are another dictator lover here.
Sorry Don, I happen to know the misery and death in Venezuela was manufactured in the halls of the US congress.
Medicines cut off, food restricted,,, It’s a long list, same script as Gaza.
Indeed. “See, Venezuela’s attempts at Socialism completely failed ! (because we ensured they would).”
Venezuelan social evolution has not failed yet.
Indeed. “See, Venezuela’s attempts at Socialism completely failed ! (because we ensured they would).”
The US has plenty to answer for.
Including creating the conditions that allowed the Chavez/Maduro kleptocracy to seize and hold power.
You really should read about the barefoot boy named Hugo. As a street vendor, he sold candies his grandmother made and then devised a line of kites to accompany candy sales. Hugo went on to join ythe army hoping to get on the baseball team. Hr was given a test like all new recruits, he did well and was offered a college scholarship.
To make a long story short, Hugo turned out to be a genius and invented a new firm of democracy. Along the way he picked out an apprentice named Maduro, who had worked his way up in the bus driver’s union.
Both of these men have become phantom enemies of the US because they became government leaders who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths. North Americans are now weak-willed people who only want rich people to rule them and save them from phantom enemies.
“To make a long story short, Hugo turned out to be a genius and invented a new firm of democracy.”
Sure, if the latest in a long line of kleptocratic caudillos calling himself a “socialist” is “a new form of democracy.”
Otherwise, not so much.
“…Russia supports Venezuela…”
“Russia/Putin (verb) (noun)” – more regular than our galaxy’s finest pulsar.
I just… Y’know, there are times when I fear for civilization’s future, and then something like this – two countries acting civilized.
If and when this concludes amicably – Nobel Peace Prizes for the major players. Wonderful start, Ali & Maduro and benevolent interlocutors !