First Colombia, now Guyana: Venezuela in new border row as troops prepare

• Border tensions between Venezuela and Colombia also flared this month, with many Colombians fearing war

SAN JUAN, September 28th, 2015 (EFE) A total of 1,000 soldiers are ready to be deployed along the border with Venezuela in case of aggression by Caracas amid a territorial dispute over Esequibo region and the Cuyuni River, Guyana Defense Force commander Brig. Gen. Mark Phillips said.

Resorting to the use of arms is “necessary to safeguard peace, and not just to provoke a war,” Phillips said after participating in a march with his troops on Saturday from the towns of Plaisance and Providence to Demerara.

Phillips’s comments came during the second day of military exercises at Base Camp Stephenson and a day after President Bharrat Jagdeo expressed concern about Venezuela’s deployment of troops and weapons along the border.

“Something we cannot do is let Venezuela say we are an aggressive country because of the signals we’re sending. We are defending Guyana and we will do so because we want peace for our country,” Jagdeo said.

Venezuela, meanwhile, said it had started military exercises this weekend in different parts of the country.

A total of 7,173 soldiers are participating in the exercises, Gen. Jackson Sanchez said Saturday.

Some of the exercises are taking place near the disputed border with Guyana, Sanchez said.

Essequibo is a resource-rich area of 167,839 sq. kilometers (64,800 sq. miles) administered by Guyana but claimed by Caracas.

An arbitration panel awarded the territory to Guyana, then still a British colony, in 1899, but more than 60 years later, the U.S. government provided Venezuela with information indicating that the panel’s decision was the result of favoritism.

Based on that information, Venezuela secured a U.N. resolution calling for negotiations over the status of Essequibo.

The long-simmering territorial dispute took on new urgency on May 20, when a subsidiary of U.S.-based ExxonMobil announced the discovery of significant oil reserves in the waters off Essequibo.

A week later, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro issued an executive order asserting sovereignty over the waters.