Guyana says Venezuela deployed troops on border area

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

Guyana says Venezuela deployed troops on border area

23 September 2015 Latin America & Caribbean

Guyana's President David Granger says Venezuela has deployed troops along their border area.

Mr Granger described the move as a "dangerous escalation" in the long-running dispute between the two South American neighbours.

Venezuela says its troops are conducting exercises in the region.

It lays claim to the vast mineral-rich area of jungle west of the Essequibo river, which accounts for about 40% of Guyana's territory.

Venezuela has been claiming the area as its own since the 19th Century, when Guyana was still a British colony.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-34332366

[Hortensis]

1. Oh, dear. And there is all that newly discovered Guyanan oil.

Nothing to do with this aggression, of course. I'm sorry to hear it.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Take time to become acquainted with the facts.

August 24, 2015
The Secret Agenda Behind the Venezuela-Guyana Conflict

by Eva Golinger

It all began in 1835 when the British Empire sent a German-born naturalist and explorer to conduct geographical research in the South American territory it had colonized and named British Guiana. In the course of his explorations, a map was drawn that well-exceeded the original western boundary first occupied by the Dutch and later passed to British control. Sparking the interest of the Empire’s desire to expand its borders into the area west of the Essequibo River that was rich in gold, the British government commissioned the explorer to survey their territorial boundaries. What became known as the “Schomburgk Line”, named after the explorer, Robert Hermann Schomburgk, usurped a large portion of Venezuelan land, and provoked the beginning of a territorial dispute that has remained unresolved to this day.

In 1850, after decades of arguing over the boundary line dividing Venezuela from its colonized neighbor, both sides agreed not to occupy the disputed territory under further determinations could be made. But as the demand for gold and other natural resources grew in the region, the British again tried to claim the territory declaring the Schomburgk Line the frontier of British Guiana, in clear violation of the previous accord with Venezuela.

. . .

In May 2015, just as Guyana was swearing in a new president, the conservative military officer David Granger, a close U.S. ally, Exxon was making a huge discovery in the Atlantic Ocean near the Venezuelan coast. According to reports, the deposits found by Exxon in the ’Liza-1 well’ hold over 700 million barrels of oil, worth about $40 billion today. The find could be a major game changer for Guyana, representing more than 12 times its current economic input, that is, if the oil actually belonged to Guyana instead of Venezuela.

. . .

The main conundrum of figuring out how to replace Venezuelan oil in PetroCaribe was resolved with the stroke of a pen by Guyana’s new president, a former instructor at the U.S. Army War College who made a secret trip to the United States just three days after taking office in May. Hours later, Exxon’s oil exploration rig, Deepwater Champion made its first major lucrative discovery in the large Stabroek Block in the disputed coastal territory.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/24/the-secret-agenda-behind-the-venezuela-guyana-conflict/

[Hortensis]

5. Judi Lynn, I really don't care who claimed those areas long ago.

Not that that matters to anyone, of course. But Big Oil's, and America's, agenda would be the same regardless of which nation held them: Profiteering for the benefit of the few. As for Venezuela, it's already oil-rich and I'm for the underdog -- who isn't deploying troops and threatening to invade because that land has been part of its nation for a long time, during most of which no one really cared.

[Judi Lynn]

6. It's up to you to find out more about the matter. What makes you think "no one cared"? n/t

[Hortensis]

7. What's your dog in this fight, Judi Lynn? Are you Venezuelan or hold

stock in some enterprise?

I actually know very little about it. My niece was married for some years to an Englishman who owned a large piece of undeveloped forest somewhere in the coastal region of Guyana toward Venezuela, but probably not actually in the disputed area. I'm not sure. They lived in Colombia, and I never visited while they were married. What I "know" is what I've heard from my niece, whose description during their settlements was something on the order of "no one wants it, and certainly not me." (She moved to France with their son after the divorce.)

But I've done a quick check and confirmed that my impression that the countries never bothered to go to even a teensy war over the disputed land in well over a century is correct. Until now, of course. The one article I scanned on its history, fwiw, also suggested that the international community would not be in sympathy with Venezuela if it pursued it militarily.

[Zorro]

10. Well you certainly know more about the situation than Judi does

Don't pay her no nevermind. She's just the group's self-anointed LatAM "expert" who routinely bullies new posters who don't show proper obeisance to the Bolivarian revolution.

[COLGATE4]

13. Except she wouldn't know Latin America if

it came up and bit her in the ass.

[Zorro]

15. Well, there's that

She'd probably claim it was a CIA ass bite.

[Bacchus4.0]

8. Maduro changed the maritime territory of Venezuela to include the area of the oil discovery

that is the origin of the recent conflict. He simply redrew the map after the oil discovery was confirmed.

[GGJohn]

9. OMFG!!!!!

You're still posting stories from Eva Golinger?
She's nothing more than a mouthpiece for the VN. Govt. She wouldn't know a fact if it came up and kicked her in the derrier.

[COLGATE4]

2. Maduro planning to imitate Argentina re Falklands?

It's at least a good shiny object for the long-suffering populace to focus on for a short while instead of the appalling lack of basic foodstuffs and medicines. VENEZUELA!! VIVA LA PATRIA!! VIVA LA REVOLUCION BOLIVARIANA!! etc etc etc.

[forest444]

3. Or Bush re: Iraq?

Which would figure, seeing as the regime you're referring to were unelected right-wingers that enjoyed full support from business elites (both local and American), laissez-faire pundits, the Opus Dei, and the GOP - just like the Bush regime.

I agree that Venezuela will probably be better off without Maduro; but take care with the parallels you draw, since they point straight to your crowd.

[COLGATE4]

11. So, your point is

inept, incompetent right wing authoritarian governments incite false patriotism in order to deflect the public's attention from a crumbling economy, just like inept left wing authoritarian governments? Agreed.

[forest444]

12. That's right.

Some also sweep dirty wars under the rug of drug wars.

Colombia: http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/the-us-shouldnt-export-colombia-drug-war-success

Honduras: http://www.theguardian.com/global/2014/jan/07/honduras-dirty-war-clean-energy-palm-oil-biofuels

Mexico: https://nacla.org/blog/2013/11/21/disappeared-and-mexicos-new-dirty-war

[COLGATE4]

14. You are aware that the war in Colombia with

insurgents predates the drug issue by at least twenty years.