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Venezuela Signals It May Invade Guyana to Enforce Annexation Referendum
Red State ^ | 11/29/2023 | streiff

Posted on 11/29/2023 5:58:17 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Brazil is mobilizing forces and sending them to the Guyana-Venezuela border as intelligence indicators point to a possible Venezuelan invasion of Guyana.

I swear, I'm not making any of this up.

The Roots of the Conflict

The Essequibo region is a large, sparsely populated area along the Venezuelan border. It comprises 74% of Guyana's territory and is home to nearly 30% of its citizens. Venezuela's claim to the area is very tenuous. The Dutch originally settled the region in the 16th century. Venezuela's claim seems based on a Spanish land grant that used the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1502. In this treaty, Spain and Portugal divided up all the world's previously undiscovered lands between them as its authority. The Spanish and Dutch skirmished throughout the Essequibo area for the next century, but there didn't seem to be any serious attempt by Spain to occupy the region.

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Things got serious in 1814 when the Dutch relinquished their title to Essequibo to the United Kingdom. At the very least, Britain's banning of slave ships from Guyana should make it the good guy in this story. In 1822, Simon Bolivar's new state of Gran Colombia claimed it owned Essequibo and demanded the British leave. London's guffaws created a Force 5 hurricane in the Caribbean. 

In 1840, the British government commissioned a survey of the border between Guyana and Venezuela. Shockingly, it found that Britain was entitled to much more territory than it had thought. Venezuela, rather predictably, didn't like the new border, but a "gentleman's agreement" was reached that neither side would create settlements in the disputed territory.

That agreement blew up in the early 1870s with gold discoveries that got Venezuela's attention. In 1886, Britain declared the 1840 boundary final, and Venezuela severed diplomatic ties with Britain. Things reached a comedic level in 1894 when Venezuela asked the United States to evict Britain because of the Monroe Doctrine. Showing how little some things change, thanks to a skilled lobbyist, this metastasized into a full-blown diplomatic crisis that resulted in Britain agreeing to arbitration.

Because Venezuela had broken diplomatic relations with Britain, the United States represented its interests at arbitration. The result was that the 1840 line was largely accepted. The conflict did not go away. In the 1950s, one of the many Venezuelan dictators who seem to pop up like mushrooms on a manure heap after a July thunderstorm, Marcos Pérez Jiménez, tried to start an independence movement in Essequibo and was well along in plans to invade Guyana when a military coup intervened.

In 1962, Venezuela brought the issue to the UN. That resulted in an agreement to establish a "framework" to resolve the dispute. When Guyana was given its independence in 1966, Venezuela made it clear that it would not relinquish its claims. Disputes bubbled up now and then until 2013, when oil was discovered on Guyana's continental shelf, and that country began exploitation. In 2021, current Venezuelan poobah Nicolas Maduro again laid claim to the disputed region and Guyana's exclusive economic zone.

The Current Dispute

In October 2023, the Venezuelan National Elector Council announced it would hold a referendum on annexing Essequibo on December 3. Venezuelan voters would make the decision.

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has thrown the full weight of his government into the effort, using patriotic rhetoric to try to summon voters to the polls to answer five questions over the territory, including whether current and future area residents should be granted Venezuelan citizenship.

Guyana sees the referendum as a case of annexation and asked the International Court of Justice on Nov. 14 to halt parts of the vote. The court has not issued a decision, but even if it rules against Venezuela, Maduro’s government intends to hold the election Sunday.


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The clincher is that the road network requires Venezuela to pass through Brazil to attack Guyana.

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What's Happening Now

Video has appeared on social media indicating that Venezuelan and Guyanan troops may be skirmishing.

Brazil has placed its army on alert after its intelligence services observed a large-scale movement of personnel and equipment by Venezuela to the Guyanan border. Brazil has defense cooperation agreements with Guyana and is expected to resist any attempt by the Venezuelan military to use Brazil as an invasion route. There are reports that Brazil has moved an undetermined number of troops to the Venezuelan border.

What Next?

I'm not a Latin American expert and don't play one on the internet, but I think this could be a case of Maduro making a cameo appearance as the "Grand Old Duke of York."  It is hard to see how Venezuela pulls off a military invasion without Brazil's cooperation. Despite the mini-love fest between Venezuela's Maduro and Brazil's Lula de Silva, it is hard to see Brazil allowing Venezuela to launch an invasion of Guyana from Brazilian territory and facing the international s**t storm that would follow.

That said, Maduro is not famed as a strategic thinker, and the visions of new Venezuelan oil wells dancing in his head could very well lead him to believe that a) he's withstood the US for years and b) no one is going to fight for a speck on the map like Guyana. 



TOPICS: Military/Veterans; Society
KEYWORDS: guyana; invasion; maduro; venezuela
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1 posted on 11/29/2023 5:58:17 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Venezuela is basically a Russian client state, so this is no surprise: It is just using its master’s plan.


2 posted on 11/29/2023 6:02:46 PM PST by ought-six (Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule. )
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To: SeekAndFind

My goodness, what on EARTH is going on lately? So much conflict.


3 posted on 11/29/2023 6:05:32 PM PST by EinNYC
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To: EinNYC
Now that our SLEEPY JOE government has ERASED our influence (whether real or perceived) throughout the world, other countries no longer feel restrained. This led to Russia invading Ukraine. This led to Hamas attacking Israel.

NEXT..

4 posted on 11/29/2023 6:11:11 PM PST by CivilWarBrewing (Get off my back for my usage of CAPS, especially you snowflake males! MAN UP!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Huge oil deposits found recently offshore of Guyana just MIGHT have something to do with it. Exon Mobile made the strike and has the drilling rights I think.


5 posted on 11/29/2023 6:16:47 PM PST by wildbill (The older I get, the less the term 'life in prison" scares me)
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To: EinNYC

Matt 24:6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

The world is definitely coming unhinged as we watch societies collapse especially the western nations. All by design by the globalist elites.


6 posted on 11/29/2023 6:24:04 PM PST by grcuster
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To: CivilWarBrewing

Exactamente.


7 posted on 11/29/2023 6:27:07 PM PST by Mr. Lucky
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To: SeekAndFind

I find it interesting that they would site a treaty that the Portuguese used to trick the Spanish out of colonizing mostly land parts of the Earth, and, be happy with the Philippines and the Western parts of South America, and, the Pacific Ocean.

The Portuguese totally played the Spanish in that one.


8 posted on 11/29/2023 6:30:02 PM PST by Conan the Librarian (Conan the Sailing Librarian)
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To: ought-six

How much oil is in the area?


9 posted on 11/29/2023 6:41:54 PM PST by ptsal (Vote R.E.D. >>>Remove Every Democrat ***)
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To: SeekAndFind
Since a large segment of the Venezuelan serfs are now living in this country, maybe Madura will make them return home to fight for the motherland...
Snicker...
10 posted on 11/29/2023 6:41:55 PM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is the next Sam Adams when we so desperately need him)
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To: SuperLuminal

Wag the dog moment?


11 posted on 11/29/2023 6:59:42 PM PST by DIRTYSECRET
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To: SeekAndFind

and b) no one is going to fight for a speck on the map like Guyana.

Hell, we fought for effin’ Grenada, didn’t we? A smaller speck than Guyana.


12 posted on 11/29/2023 7:17:24 PM PST by jagusafr ( )
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To: wildbill

Likely


13 posted on 11/29/2023 7:27:22 PM PST by Patriot777 ("When you see these things begin to happen, look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.")
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To: EinNYC

There is no “Pax Americana” when America is run by anti-American puppet-masters controlling a stupid, senile pervert.


14 posted on 11/29/2023 7:30:25 PM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: SeekAndFind

I looked over the terrain of western Guyana. No significant roads, almost 200 kilometers of forests. I am reminded of the situation faced by the Soviets as they tried to cut Finland in half in 1939-1940. Lots of opportunities for close range ambushes and attrition. I would not want to be in the invading forces.


15 posted on 11/29/2023 7:32:44 PM PST by 17th Miss Regt ( )
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To: SeekAndFind

Way to go brandon! FJB and his wars.


16 posted on 11/29/2023 9:15:14 PM PST by US_MilitaryRules (#PureBloodlaw enforcement. )
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To: SeekAndFind
First it was gold that fueled the dispute and now it is oil.

When you go south to Ciudad Bolivar you think you have gone a long way and are deep in Indian country until you realize you are less than half way to Brazil. The lost world of the fabled Tepuis is still far far away.

17 posted on 11/29/2023 9:36:44 PM PST by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance)
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To: wildbill

“Huge oil deposits found recently offshore of Guyana just MIGHT have something to do with it.”

Venezuela can’t pump the oil it already has.


18 posted on 11/29/2023 10:18:44 PM PST by ModelBreaker
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To: SeekAndFind

If ever there was a war for oil this will be it. There are substantial proven reserves in Guyana. Can’t have rich Guyanans when the commies need the money. If there is war, will all the illegal venezuelans be mobilized?


19 posted on 11/30/2023 8:13:16 AM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eye)
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To: EinNYC

looks like war in South America— Guyana seized by Venezuela. Faukins seized by Argentina. Whats next Chili and Peru/Boliva fighting for Anafagasta?


20 posted on 11/30/2023 12:07:31 PM PST by Forward the Light Brigade ( Ride to the sound of the Guns!)
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