South America urges Venezuela and Guyana to avoid “unilateral actions”

The South American countries urged this Thursday Venezuela and Guyana to avoid “unilateral actions”, in the midst of the growing tension between both countries over the dominance of the Essequibo region, which Caracas intends to annex.

This was stated in a declaration released at the end of the semi-annual Mercosur summit (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay), held in Rio de Janeiro, which was also signed by Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

The signatories expressed in the note “its deep concern with the increase in tensions” between Venezuela and Guyana.

The Government of Nicolás Maduro has undertaken a crusade to add the jungle region of Essequibo to the Venezuelan map, an area of ​​160,000 square kilometers controlled by Guyana, rich in oil and minerals, and whose possession Caracas has claimed for more than a century.

In this context, the South American countries “They warned about unilateral actions that should be avoided, as they add tension”and “They urged both parties to dialogue and search for a peaceful solution to the controversy in order to avoid unilateral initiatives that could aggravate it.”

After holding a referendum last Sunday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has presented an action plan for the area, which includes the granting of licenses for oil exploitation and military deployments in towns near the disputed area.

“Latin America must be a territory of peace and in the present case work with the tools of its long tradition of dialogue,” sentenced the declaration, which was proposed by Brazil, which until this Thursday held the rotating presidency of Mercosur.

Sources from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry indicated that all countries in the region are “exhausting all diplomatic channels” for “try to calm the situation” between the two countries.

Previously, in the plenary session of the presidential summit of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, remarked that “they don’t want wars” in Southamerica, “nor do they need conflicts” in the region, but to promote “peace”.

Regarding this controversy, the outgoing ruler of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, said that “not well”emphasizing that Latin America stands out for being a region of peace, something that should not be allowed to happen. “get lost”according to his speech, released by the Presidency.