By Daniel Nardini
As if things in Venezuela are not bad enough, now Venezuela is going one step further in forcing companies to publish digital maps and map websites that shows 40 percent of Guyana’s territory as belonging to Venezuela. These postings were on Facebook and Twitter. The Guyana government understandably protested this and requested that these maps be removed. The region in dispute (which is not in dispute by all other accounts. It is Guyana’s territory) is Guyana’s western Essequibo region. This area has always belonged to Guyana. Great Britain has stated that it will aid Guyana if Venezuela should invade Guyana.
We can only hope this does not happen. Why is Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro making threats against a South American neighbor? It is probably a distraction from the failure of his regime to even provide the basics for his own people. It is a distraction to prevent his own people from seeing how many millions of Venezuelans have fled the country. Finally, it is a possible land grab by Maduro. Essequibo is rich in oil, natural gas, gold and diamond deposits. Dictatorships have gone to war for less reasons than grabbing riches. In 2013, Venezuelan gunboats seized an American vessel clearly in Guyana waters searching for oil deposits. This move nearly risked war with the United States. The Venezuelans expelled the American vessel from the area. In 2019, a Venezuelan military helicopter tried to land on an American oil rig in Guyana territorial waters in an attempt to seize the rig. The helicopter was chased away.
I am noticing a pattern here. Russian President Vladimir Putin started the vicious and deadly war in Ukraine as an attempt to expand the Russian Empire. China under current leader Xi Jinping plans to try and invade Taiwan. And then there is Maduro and his war of words against Guyana. It seems pretty clear that the dictators of the world are trying to challenge the western democracies from one end of the earth to the other. Are we entering a prelude to a world war? Are these dictators working together to start wars to stretch the western democracies thin so they can cause as much havoc as possible? How far is Maduro willing to gamble on trying to bite off Guyana, or swallow the country whole? One thing seems to be clear, and that is this is Maduro’s war not only against Guyana but against all of the world’s democracies.
Maduro’s War
By Daniel Nardini
We can only hope this does not happen. Why is Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro making threats against a South American neighbor? It is probably a distraction from the failure of his regime to even provide the basics for his own people. It is a distraction to prevent his own people from seeing how many millions of Venezuelans have fled the country. Finally, it is a possible land grab by Maduro. Essequibo is rich in oil, natural gas, gold and diamond deposits. Dictatorships have gone to war for less reasons than grabbing riches. In 2013, Venezuelan gunboats seized an American vessel clearly in Guyana waters searching for oil deposits. This move nearly risked war with the United States. The Venezuelans expelled the American vessel from the area. In 2019, a Venezuelan military helicopter tried to land on an American oil rig in Guyana territorial waters in an attempt to seize the rig. The helicopter was chased away.
I am noticing a pattern here. Russian President Vladimir Putin started the vicious and deadly war in Ukraine as an attempt to expand the Russian Empire. China under current leader Xi Jinping plans to try and invade Taiwan. And then there is Maduro and his war of words against Guyana. It seems pretty clear that the dictators of the world are trying to challenge the western democracies from one end of the earth to the other. Are we entering a prelude to a world war? Are these dictators working together to start wars to stretch the western democracies thin so they can cause as much havoc as possible? How far is Maduro willing to gamble on trying to bite off Guyana, or swallow the country whole? One thing seems to be clear, and that is this is Maduro’s war not only against Guyana but against all of the world’s democracies.