Venezuelan troops withdrawing from near the Guyana border

Last Updated on Thursday, 23 November 2023, 20:31 by Denis Chabrol

Venezuelan troops appear to be withdrawing from near the border with Guyana, and the X (formerly Twitter) feeds of several top Venezuelan officials have toned down their references to the Essequibo County, sources said.

A usually reliable government official said “they have been told to deescalate” by a number of friendly nations. Those countries have been backing Guyana’s position that the territorial controversy with Venezuela must be settled at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and that the December 3 referendum, as currently drafted, allows for Venezuela to abandon that court and seize Guyana’s territory.

People who visited Imbotero in north-western Guyana on the border with Venezuela on Thursday said military hardware, including tanks, and personnel have left that area. The Venezuelan military strength at that point has been reduced to about 15 persons who normally monitor the area.

Venezuelan military personnel opposite other Guyanese locations were also said to be retreating.

On X, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and Vice President Delcy Rodriguez relaxed their rhetoric significantly about Guyanese county of Essequibo is theirs.

The ICJ is yet to rule on whether the currently framed referendum questions should not stand because of the implications for Guyana’s case that the 1899 Arbitral Tribunal Award settled the land boundary.

Meanwhile, President Irfaan Ali on Thursday night appealed to residents in an interior community close to the Guyana-Venezuela border that they needed to be security conscious and report suspicious activity to the Joint Services. Earlier Thursday, he told residents of Mabaruma, the Region One (Barima-Waini) capital, that female Venezuelan soldiers were infiltrating Guyana and that security forces were watching the situation closely.

Dr Ali told the residents that technology was being used to assist the Guyana Defence Force to analyse trends and take appropriate actions.

The President also announced that United States Defence officials would begin visiting Guyana next week and throughout December to provide training.

Venezuela’s Ambassador to Guyana, Carlos Amador Pérez Silva said on November 12 that his country would not be invading Guyana after the referendum, but that soldiers had been deployed to counter gold smuggling, narco trafficking, trafficking in persons and other major crimes.