Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged his counterpart Nicolas Maduro on Saturday not to escalate the dispute on Venezuela’s border with neighboring Guyana, as South American leaders nervously watched the escalating dispute.
Tensions have flared in the oil-rich Essequibo region controlled by Guyana since Maduro’s government held a controversial referendum last weekend in which 95 percent of voters supported declaring Venezuela its rightful owner, according to official results.
Veteran leftist Lula, who maintains close ties to Maduro, issued a clear warning in a phone call with his Venezuelan counterpart, according to a statement from his office.
“Lula stressed the importance of avoiding unilateral measures that could escalate the situation,” the Brazilian presidency said.
It said Lula had told Maduro of the “growing concern of South American countries”, citing a joint statement on Thursday by Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay which called for “both parties to negotiate to seek a peaceful solution.”
China sees progress in climate talks as OPEC fights for fossil fuels
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petros, also sent a warning.
“The biggest calamity that could hit South America would be a war,” he wrote on X, formerly of Twitter.
“Playing out a local version of the NATO/Russia conflict in the Amazon rainforest would cost us vital time, progress and lives… Venezuela and Guyana must de-escalate the conflict.”
Call for mediation
Guyana has ruled Essequibo, which makes up more than two-thirds of its territory, for more than a century.
But Venezuela has been claiming it for decades. The dispute intensified after ExxonMobil discovered oil in the Essequibo in 2015, giving Guyana – population 800,000 – the world’s largest crude reserves per capita.
Since last Sunday’s referendum, Maduro has launched legal maneuvers to create a Venezuelan province in Essequibo and ordered the state oil company to issue permits to extract crude in the area.
Almost two years after the war, is Russia’s economy out of the woods?
The United States meanwhile announced joint military exercises with Guyana, which Venezuela condemned as a “provocation.”
The United Nations Security Council held a closed-door meeting on Friday on the spiraling dispute, which is the subject of an appeal before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Lula’s office said he had suggested in his conversation with Maduro that the head of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States contact the two sides to start talks.
Lula has so far maintained friendly ties with Maduro, inviting him to a South American summit in May, even as other regional leaders criticized the Venezuelan government’s human rights record.
But the Essequibo dispute is fraught with danger for Brazil, which shares borders with Guyana and Venezuela.
Brazil has sent military reinforcements to its northern border amid escalating tensions.
Source: AFP