By: Staff Writer
July 6, 2021
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Guyana’s top military commander says that Guyana wants peace at all cost with Venezuela but the political uncertainty surrounding Venezuela is making that virtually impossible.
Brigadier Godfrey Bess, chief of staff, Guyana Defence Force, speaking on a webinar for the “Naval and Maritime Security Week: Latin America & Caribbean,” said that protecting the peace and atmosphere around Guyana’s borders is of “paramount importance” and the only problem the country has faced has been with Venezuela at the border.
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Mr Bess also said: “Over the years, Venezuela has conducted multiple acts of aggressions against Guyana, these threats have taken on-what can be described- as worrisome proportions recently, where physical incursions have occurred in our exclusive economic zone.”
Venezuela has repeatedly called the “Guayana Esequiba” zone territory of Venezuela. Violence has escalated even more so when Guyana found oil in its territorial waters in the Stabroek Block offshore from Guyana.
Kidnappings, murders and intimidation has often occurred against Guyanese farmers and citizens at the Esquiba border, with the border often overrun by Venezuelan gangs particularly interested in the gold deposits in the Esquiba region. Last December, three men, including two Venezuelans were remanded to prison for the gruesome murder of a Guyanese gold miner in Turn Basin, Port Kaituma, North West District, Guyana.
The Venezuelan gangs are said to be state sponsored and have the backing of the Nicholas Maduro regime, however the regime flatly denies this assertion.
Mr Bess also said: “We’ve noted movements and mobilization of non-state actors, gangs, on the Venezuelan side of the border and we’ve shared that information with the Venezuelan armed forces.”
The attacks on Guyanese citizens don’t extend only to gold miners at the North West border of Guyana, but also fisherfolk have been “illegally intercepted” and their boats and other fishing equipment confiscated by Venezuelan authorities.
In February of this year, Venezuela released a group of 12 Guyanese fishermen who were detained in late January, in what was the latest flare-up in the South American nations’ long-running border conflict. The ongoing detention of seafaring vessels working under or for the Guyanese government has extended to Exxon Mobil as assets belonging to the oil giant, doing oil exploration work in Guyanese waters was intercepted by Venezuela’s navy in 2018.
Mr Bess also said: “In 2015, investments in the exploration of our hydrocarbon reserves were threatened. Forces from Venezuela forcibly removed exploration vessels from our sovereign waters and detained the crew on board- A research vessel invited by Guyana.
“Notably also was the annexing of Ankoko Island through military force, and publishing a notice in the London Times warning investors from conducting businesses in the Esquiba, among many others.”
Brigadier Bess also said that as long as the political and economic uncertainty continues in Venezuela, with president Maduro still clasping on to leadership and his opponent, acting president Juan Guaidó, remains unresolved and Venezuelan cartels still have a firm grip over the country with the world’s largest oil reserves, then he expects more incursions by the Venezuelan government and he is continuing vigilance on the situation.
Brigadier Bess asserted that the Guyanese government is not looking for an open conflict with Venezuela and is waiting on the Caribbean Court of Justice to give a ruling on the border conflict with Venezuela and admits that there has been no government to government relations with their Venezuelan counterpart at the defence and security level. “Because of that (the CCJ judicial proceedings), officially, we have not been having military to military discussions and relations,” said Bess.
Military to military discussions with Venezuela may be difficult, at best, because the country is not run by a government with a standard military, but analysts have reported, the country is ran by a criminal enterprise called the “Cartels of the Sun” with president Maduro operating as a figurehead for the organisation.
Brazil has openly given support to Guyana if military conflict was to ever transpire between them and Venezuela and something Mr Bess called on openly by asking all Caribbean countries along with Brazil to help keep Guyana safe from any incursion and attack from Venezuela.