The US denies the installation of secret bases in Essequibo

The United States denied the installation of secret military bases in Essequibo, territory that Venezuela and Guyana consider theirs, as President Nicolás Maduro stated this week.

“There are no plans for a secret military base,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday.

Maduro said on Wednesday he had verified information that they had installed secret military bases of the Southern Command and “CIA nuclei” in Essequibo, with the aim of preparing an “escalation” against Venezuela.

In December last year, the US Southern Command and the Guyana Defense Force conducted flight operations in Guyanese territory as part of routine operations that, according to the US embassy in Georgetown, sought to improve cooperation between both countries.

This week, Venezuela enacted a law that leads to turning Essequibo into a Venezuelan state.

Last year the Maduro government carried out an advisory referendum in which, according to the Electoral Power, Venezuelans rejected with 95% of the votes the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the dispute and supported the incorporation of the Essequibo territory as a state.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guyana assured that that country “will not tolerate annexation, seizure or occupation of any part of its sovereign territory.”

The historic controversy between Caracas and Georgetown over the Essequibo, a territory of some 160,000 square kilometers rich in natural resources, worsened in recent months, after the Guyanese government granted oil concessions in areas pending delimitation.

(With information from AFP)

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