Despite international protests, a referendum was held on Sunday with the question of whether Essequibo in the neighboring country of Guyana should actually belong to Venezuela. According to Venezuelan authorities, 10.5 million of the country’s 20.7 million eligible voters participated, and 95 percent voted yes.
The meeting in the UN Security Council takes place at the initiative of Guyana, which claims that Venezuela’s actions in the oil-rich region of Essequibo “threaten international peace and security”.
– Venezuela has had territorial claims on Essequibo for over 100 years. But the reason why President Maduro is raising the issue right now is the enormous wealth in the area, says SVT’s Latin America correspondent Tigran Feiler.
High economic growth
In recent years, huge deposits of oil and gas have been found, which has given Guyana the world’s highest economic growth, says Tigran Feiler.
On Wednesday after the vote, Venezuela’s president proposed at a cabinet meeting that a bill be sent to parliament to declare a new province in the region belonging to neighboring Guyana.
Nicolás Maduro has also ordered the state oil company to immediately issue licenses for the extraction of crude oil in the region.
Concerns about global consequences
Tigran Feiler says that the concern that the conflict will have global consequences is growing.
– Venezuela has close ties to countries such as Russia, China and Iran.
On Thursday, the United States announced that it will conduct joint military exercises with Guyana, something that Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez called a “deplorable provocation,” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has expressed concern about the escalation.
– If there is something we do not want in South America, it is war, he said.
Even Britain’s foreign minister, David Cameron, has spoken out about the conflict.
– The country’s borders were established in 1899. I see absolutely no reason for unilateral action on the part of Venezuela, he said.