Dear Editor,
In a staged referendum recently, Maduro “received approval” for his claim that Venezuela is the rightful owner of Essequibo. This is a claim without legal or historical merit, the details of which have been discussed exhaustively in the Guyanese newspapers recently. Not content to subjugate and impoverish his own people, Venezuela’s dictator, President Nicolas Maduro is casting his covetous eyes further afield: Guyana and its oil reserves. Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and therefore should be having a first world economy. Instead, after decades of socialism under Maduro and Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s economy is in shambles – a basket case. Excessive government spending, inflation, corruption, and disastrous oil field maintenance is driving Maduro to dangerous international excesses resurrecting an old territorial dispute. Guyana, specifically the Essequibo region, is in his crosshairs. The US is urged to step in as fortification against Maduro’s aggression.
As such, it is heartening that top US diplomat Blinken recently reaffirmed support for Guyana’s sovereignty against Venezuela’s threat. But that is not enough to stop Maduro. US President Biden is considered by many weak and vacillating. This perception is ostensibly driving Maduro’s recklessness. Biden is distracted in the Middle East, in Ukraine (his request for billions in Ukrainian aid is meeting resistance in Congress), his chaotic, some say spineless, abandonment of Afghanistan to the Taliban is still fresh, and his recent scrambling to restore the flawed Iran nuclear deal unfreezing billions of dollars for Iran (of significant note: Iran and Venezuela are allies). Maduro has surely noticed Iran’s proxy, Hamas launching genocidal raid in Israel while Iran’s proxies fire missiles, explosive-laden drones, and rockets at U.S. warships and bases, while Biden fiddles. Maduro the dictator senses that he can threaten without significant risk of a strong, if any, US response.
Sincerely,
Dev Persaud
