The United States on Saturday denounced what it said were Venezuelan naval vessels “threatening” an ExxonMobil unit in maritime territory claimed by Guyana.
The statement, which warned of “consequences” if there is further provocation from Caracas, came hours after Guyana President Irfaan Ali said a Venezuelan patrol boat had “approached various assets in our exclusive waters” around 7:00 am.
Guyana had “put its international partners on alert,” he said on Facebook.
The US State Department warned against any further encroachment.
“Venezuelan naval vessels threatening ExxonMobil’s floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is unacceptable and a clear violation of Guyana’s internationally recognized maritime territory,” said the statement from the department’s US Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.
“Further provocation will result in consequences for the Maduro regime,” it added.
Guyana, long one of the poorest countries in Latin America, has seen heightened tensions with Venezuela over control of the disputed Esequibo territory, a sprawling region rich in natural resources.
Tensions flared in 2015 when petroleum giant ExxonMobil discovered enormous deposits that gave Guyana, a country of just 800,000 people and with a tiny military, the largest crude oil reserves in the world.
Ali, whose country is closely allied to Washington, said on Facebook that the floating production vessels were “operating legally within Guyana’s exclusive economic zone.”
“Guyana remains committed to peace and the rule of law,” he said in a later post.
“We will continue to seek diplomatic solutions, but we will not tolerate threats to our territorial integrity.”
Venezuela’s military has yet to comment on the incident.
Soldiers wounded
Tensions were fanned on February 17 when Guyana said six of its soldiers were wounded when a supply transport was ambushed, allegedly by members of a Venezuelan criminal gang.
That happened on the anniversary of the signing of a 1966 agreement between Venezuela and Britain, reached before Guyanese independence, that called for a negotiated solution to the territorial dispute.
But Guyana has insisted that an earlier 1899 ruling had fixed the disputed border in its favor.
In 2023, Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro proposed declaring a Venezuelan province in the disputed territory.
Last December, Britain sent the patrol ship HMS Trent on a port visit to Guyana capital Georgetown, a gesture Maduro deemed a “provocation and threat by the United Kingdom.”
Venezuela then launched a major military exercise in the border region, including more than 5,600 soldiers, F-14 fighter jets, amphibious vessels and patrol boats.
Amid heightened tensions, Ali and Maduro met last December, shortly before the Trent arrived in Guyana, for talks on neutral ground, in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
They agreed to avoid any use of force, “directly or indirectly.”
