The Government of Venezuela accused the United States of trying to create “provocations, threats and aggressions” with the joint military exercises that it has been carrying out since Saturday with Guyana in a nearby area to an area in dispute between the two Caribbean countries.
In a statement to the media, the executive vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, described these exercises as “an agonizing action of the last hours of the Government of Donald Trump, which intends to create provocations, threats and attacks against the Venezuelan people. ”
He also assured that these exercises are directed against the Venezuelan sovereignty and “territorial integrity.”
As stated, “there is a presence of a United States coast guard ship”, so they are “Very attentive to the development of military exercises, which are not carried out in jurisdictional waters of Venezuela.”
Presence of the US Navy
Heh Faith of the US Navy Southern Command, Admiral Craig Faller, plans to visit Guyana this Monday, where he will remain until next Wednesday, in the scope of joint surveillance maneuvers that are intended, among other matters, to intercept drug trafficking near the border with Venezuela.
This visit follows that of the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, in September of 2018, when the two countries signed a maritime cooperation agreement.
According to a statement released by the Embassy of the United States in Georgetown, capital of Guyana, the admiral will meet with government and Defense leaders and discuss the bilateral security partnership between the United States and Guyana.
The announcement of the joint maritime patrols last September aroused interest in the South American country to develop in an area close to the disputed area of the Essequi bo and that affects Venezuela.
Venezuela and Guyana dispute a territory that the first country calls Guayana Esequiba and covers almost 160, 000 square kilometers west of the Essequibo River, which It represents almost two thirds of the former British colony.
The controversy over the area has intensified in recent years after the American company ExxonMobil discovered, in 2015, oil fields in the waters adjacent to the disputed area.
Venezuela on alert
Rodríguez assured that, in 2018 and 2013, Venezuela “repelled” several “actions and presence of ExxonMobil vessels contracted by Guayana.”
In this sense, the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino, explained that, in 2013, “research vessels dared to explore, to do research in jurisdictional waters no controversies ”of Venezuela.
In 2018, two vessels, one for research and the other for support that had also been hired by the US oil company “dared to go to Venezuelan jurisdictional waters” where the Navy “practiced the rigorous protocols” and expelled them, he added.
“In other words, we have exercised permanent sovereignty in our jurisdictional waters that are not being controversial and there is no doubt that they are part of the geographical spaces of Venezuela,” he stressed.
Godfather, who described Admiral Faller as a “proconsul”, also assured that the United States acts in “These agonizing, desperate hours of the Donald Trump Administration”, with the aim of “generating and creating a state of anxiety, of threat, not only to Venezuela (…) but also to the entire region.”
“We see these exercises as a clear provocation to the interests of the country,” he concluded and he Minister of Defense, who emphasized that they have begun a “constant patrolling” of Venezuelan waters, as well as a “permanent observation by air” of the Venezuelan Atlantic facade.
Letter to Guterres
The executive vice president took up the floor to remind that Venezuela has sent her a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres, “warning of this threat to peace and tranquility” in the region.
Also called on the Caribbean countries to comment on the matter and reject the military exercises, which they consider a threat.
Continue Reading: The US accuses the president of Honduras of facilitating drug trafficking activities