No one with knowledge of the long-standing territorial controversy between Guyana and Venezuela is likely to be shocked over the recent seizure of two Guyanese fishing vessels by the Venezuelan Navy and the detention of their Guyanese crew in Guyana’s territorial waters late last month. Notwithstanding the release of the boats and crew on Tuesday, it is a development that is characteristic of the kind of pinprick aggression that has been perpetrated by Venezuela against Guyana for decades and which has included armed incursions into Guyana territory and even the physical occupation by the Venezuelan military of areas belonging to Guyana.
Caracas’ aggression towards Guyana has also previously impacted the operations of ExxonMobil, the US oil company currently in the midst of oil recovery and exploration operations which are projected to significantly transform the Guyana economy. In early 2019 the beleaguered Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro responded to the 2015 announcement by ExxonMobil that it had recorded ‘world class’ oil finds in Guyana and that the prospects for further finds were better than good, with a pronouncement to the effect that his administration would block the globally influential US oil company from exploring for oil in offshore waters which it claims it owns. Militarily, this is a threat which, even in its current decidedly hobbled state, Venezuela can carry out without great difficulty.
