Presidents of Venezuela and Guyana discuss border dispute – ‘Love Story’ star Ryan O’Neal also dead in Brazil

The presidents of Venezuela and Guyana, Nicolás Maduro and Irfaan Ali, will meet on Thursday for a summit on their border dispute. The summit will take place in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said the head of the government there, Ralph Gonsalves.

There is an urgent need to “de-escalate the conflict and initiate appropriate face-to-face dialogue,” Gonsalves said on Saturday. Venezuela claims the oil-rich Essequibo region, which has been part of Guyana for more than a century, as its own.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will also participate in the meeting, Gonsalves said in his capacity as acting president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).

Maduro said on the online service X that he would defend “the historic rights of Venezuela” at the meeting. “Once again we will fight back against lies, provocations and threats against our people. Our homeland will win!” he wrote.

Ali, however, stressed that Guyana continues to push for a resolution of the dispute at the International Court of Justice and not through negotiations.

Call for a peaceful solution

Several South American countries had called on Venezuela and Guyana to resolve the dispute peacefully. Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru warned in a joint statement against “unilateral actions” that “could lead to additional tensions.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro warned of an escalation of the conflict. “The greatest misfortune for South America would be if war broke out,” he wrote on X.

Historical disagreement

About 125,000 of the 800,000 Guyanese live in the Essequibo region, which makes up about two-thirds of Guyanese territory. Guyana points out that the current border was established by an arbitration court in 1899. Venezuela, on the other hand, claims that the Essequibo River in the east of the region forms a natural border that was recognized as early as 1777.

Caracas’ demands increased, especially after oil company ExxonMobil discovered an oil deposit in the area in 2015. Another major oil discovery was made in the region in October, increasing Guyana’s reserves to at least 10 billion barrels – more than those of oil-rich Kuwait or the United Arab Emirates.

According to official figures, more than 10.4 million Venezuelans participated a week ago in a non-binding referendum on the demarcation of the border with Guyana. According to the Venezuelan election authority, 95 percent of voters supported Venezuela’s claim to the Essequibo region. However, many observers doubted the figures.

Shortly afterwards, President Maduro called for the area to be declared a Venezuelan province by law and for oil production permits to be issued. (sda/afp)