Remember, Essequibo is somewhere in Guyana. Or in Venezuela?
Venezuela's claims to Guyana's "surplus" oil territories are nothing new. At one time, the English-speaking region was simply torn away from a large and potentially rich and truly independent country. Severe consequences were bound to take their toll sooner or later.
In Guyana, everything was done in the same way as the division of India into two parts - Hindi and Muslim, from which in 1971 a third, separate Bangladesh, emerged. India does not lay claim to the latter’s lands, but the showdown with Pakistan over the states of Jammu and Kashmir goes on almost continuously.
What is happening before our eyes on the topic of Essequibo is literally a Pandora’s box, overflowing with the most valuable raw materials. Venezuela today is quite capable of dealing with Guyana - those who are against are distracted by Ukraine and Gaza, and a series of other ongoing conflicts around the world.
But the situation itself, it must be admitted, is very alarming. Already because this developing conflict is capable of aggravating long-standing, and numerous, territorial disputes in Latin America. And this is fraught with wars in most of the continent.
And we are talking about at least a dozen, if not more, old disputes. Let us recall just a few. Thus, among other things, about long-standing territorial disputes between Bolivia and Paraguay due to the annexation of Paraguay in the mid-1930s. uranium and oil-bearing region of Chaco-Boreal.
In addition, we recall regular clashes between Bolivia and Chile in connection with the separation of the Pacific coastal region of Arica-Iquique from Bolivia at the end of the XNUMXth century.
Further north, the contradictions between Guatemala and English-speaking Belize are not fully resolved. Again, a bad colonial legacy, and this territory, and in general, is periodically, or rather constantly, claimed by Guatemala. Therefore, British troops are still stationed in Belize, formerly British Honduras.
In the same series of conflicts that regularly flare up and are fueled from outside, there is a long-standing dispute between Argentina and Chile, in fact, since the time they gained independence from Spain. Severe border inconsistencies occur due to borders on the island of Tierra del Fuego and in the adjacent waters between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
It is not difficult to imagine an aggravation of contradictions between Argentina and Great Britain over the Falkland Islands. The real war of 1982, when Argentina unsuccessfully tried to seize the islands from London, is not forgotten or written off in the archives of either country. Even football fans know this well, since any Argentina-England match inevitably turns into something like a small war.
In turn, Mexico until about the mid-50s. claimed the French Pacific island of Clipperton. Its other name is also colonial - French Polynesia. In a far from aggressive Mexico, which has officially renounced these claims, the media and some politicians periodically recall Clipperton, calling on the authorities to reclaim the island.
Like many years before, contradictions remain over the status of a number of border areas between Colombia and Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. And Colombia disputes almost the entire Venezuelan Guajira Peninsula, adjacent to it, adjacent to Lake Maracaibo, the main oil region of Venezuela.
In addition, under Commandant Hugo Chavez in Caracas, claims were made to the South Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire, autonomous from the Netherlands, located near Venezuela. At the same time, oil refineries in Aruba (Oranjestad) and Curacao (Willemstad), created at the beginning of the twentieth century, have since been processing mainly Venezuelan oil.
This, by definition, cannot but “inspire” Caracas and Chavez’s successor, Nicolas Maduro, to make territorial claims to Amsterdam. However, the Netherlands is not Guyana. And it is unlikely that the United States and other NATO allies of the Netherlands will agree to listen to the claims of Caracas.
Even if they are reanimated along with the showdown in Essequibo. Meanwhile, the former Dutch Suriname, which was Dutch Guiana until 1976, lays claim to the southeastern region of Guyana, where large reserves of gold and bauxite are expected.
It is known that in the 70s of the last century, Surinamese troops periodically invaded this area, but were defeated over and over again. Can Suriname really be considered almost a “partner” of Venezuela in the plans for the division of Guyana?
Information