United Kingdom reaffirms support for Guyana amid dispute with Venezuela

The head of diplomacy United Kingdom in America, David Rutley, reaffirmed this Monday the support of the British government to Guyana in the midst of its territorial dispute with Venezuelain a closed-door meeting in Georgetown with the Guyanese president, Irfaan Ali.

“The United Kingdom supports Guyana“, published Rutley, British Undersecretary of State for the Americas and the Caribbean, on the social network X, in a message accompanying a photo in which he shakes Ali’s hand.

“Today in Georgetown I reiterated our strong support for Guyana’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and regional peace,” he expressed without expressly mentioning Venezuela.

Ali met last Thursday in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines with his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, in a face-to-face meeting in which both governments agreed that “they will not threaten each other, nor use force against each other under any circumstances”according to a joint statement.

That meeting took place amid heightened tensions over Essequibo, a 160,000 km2 territory rich in oil and natural resources administered by Guyana and claimed by Venezuela.

This Monday’s conversations between Ali and Rutley “focused on the continuation and expansion of the relationship between the United Kingdom and Guyana, especially in areas of security and sustainable economic development”according to a statement from the Guyanese ruler’s office, which also made no mention of Venezuela.

The Maduro government reacted harshly.

“The former empire, invader and slaveholder, which illegally occupied the territory of Guayana Esequiba and acted in a cunning and devious manner against the interests of Venezuela, insists on intervening in a territorial controversy that they themselves generated. This dispute will be resolved directly between the parties.”published in X by the Venezuelan foreign minister, Yván Gil, who described Rutley as a “filibuster.”

Venezuela approved on December 3, in a referendum, to create a Venezuelan province in Essequibo and give nationality to its inhabitants.

Guyana took the case to the UN Security Council and announced contacts with “partners” like the United States and the United Kingdom.

Venezuela maintains that Essequibo is part of its territory, as in 1777, when it was a colony of Spain, and appeals to the Geneva agreement, signed in 1966 before the independence of Guyana from the United Kingdom, which laid the foundations for a negotiated solution and annulled an award from 1899.

Guyana defends that award and wants it to be ratified by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), whose jurisdiction its neighbor does not know.