The United Kingdom announced, on Sunday December 24, the deployment of a military patrol ship in support of Guyana, in the midst of a crisis on the Essequibo, an oil-rich territory claimed by Venezuela, which reacted by denouncing a “provocation “.
“THE HMS Trent will travel to Guyana, our regional ally and Commonwealth partner this month for a series of engagements in the region,” the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement, without further details.
According to the BBC, the patrol boat must participate in military maneuvers after Christmas with other unspecified allies of the former British colony, for whom London had already shown its support by dispatching its Secretary of State for the Americas, David Rutley. THE HMS Trentusually based in the Mediterranean, was sent to the Caribbean at the beginning of December to fight against drug trafficking.
“We remain on alert in the face of these provocations”
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López reacted by denouncing a “provocation”. “A warship (…)? What next? And the commitment to goodwill and peaceful coexistence? And what about the promise not to resort to threats and not to use force in no circumstances”, he wrote on the social network, referring to the commitments made by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his Guyana counterpart Irfaan Ali during their meeting on December 14. “We remain on alert in the face of these provocations which pose a risk to the peace and stability of the Caribbean,” added the minister.
Some 125,000 people or a fifth of Guyana’s population live in Essequibo, which covers two-thirds of the country’s land area. Venezuela maintains that the Essequibo River should be the natural border, as in 1777 during the time of the Spanish Empire. Guyana argues that the border, dating from the English colonial era, was ratified in 1899 by an arbitration court in Paris.