It also seems clear that the dispute, which centres on control of the Essequibo region in western Guyana, a sparsely populated area the size of Greece that constitutes about two-thirds of Guyanese territory, is mostly about oil. In 2015, the US oil giant, ExxonMobil, discovered a big field off Guyana’s coast, largely within its exclusive economic zone.
The discovery has swollen Guyana’s estimated oil reserves to about 11bn barrels.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Unpopular Maduro, who succeeded his charismatic mentor, the late revolutionary socialist Hugo Chávez, in 2013, faces an election next year that, if it is free and fair, he will likely lose.
It also seems clear that the dispute, which centres on control of the Essequibo region in western Guyana, a sparsely populated area the size of Greece that constitutes about two-thirds of Guyanese territory, is mostly about oil.
Citizens were asked to unilaterally reject the ICJ process, declare Essequibo an integral part of Venezuela, and extend mandatory citizenship to its English-speaking inhabitants.
Armed with this bogus mandate, reminiscent of Russian tactics in eastern Ukraine, Maduro has mobilised troops and taken other threatening steps as a possible prelude to invasion and annexation.
It may be that this reaction is exactly what Maduro, fake champion of the masses, hoped to provoke, in order to boost his domestic standing and anti-imperialist credentials.
He has begun ordering the arrest of opposition figures, including campaign aides to next year’s probable main election challenger, María Corina Machado, allegedly for treacherously conspiring against the Essequibo referendum.
The original article contains 581 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Look, a nation looking to expand its territory due to oil. Where’s all the anti American Lemmy users to say how imperialistic they are?
They’re LARPing as imperialists, maybe, but realistically as soon as they try anything, they will get stomped harder than Saddam Hussein during Gulf War 1.
IMO, that government has already been stomped, but it’s propped up somehow. Venezuela has lost about 10% of its population over last few years and it’s currency is inflated badly. It just doesn’t make sense how that man is still in power.
Problem is he’s backed into a corner now. He mobilized. How will it look to his supporters if he starts to de-escalate? Reserve troops were pulled from their families, jobs and lives, and for what, political posturing? Yea I don’t think so.
edit: I cannot definitively verify that reserves were mobilized.
Reserve families were pulled from their families, jobs, and lives
Yea I don’t think so
Trump did literally the same thing in 2018, and he did it over the holiday season. It was a political stunt through and through.
Fair point. Though I’ll add that it was a fairly small number, and he did not win his next election.
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A ploy to hang on to power???
It always is with these assholes…
