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‘Despotic’ Maduro accused of risking Venezuela-Guyana conflict over oil-rich region
(www.theguardian.com)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The foreign minister of the tiny South American nation of Guyana has said that neighbouring Venezuela is “on the wrong side of history” as it risks sparking conflict over an oil-rich and long-contested swath of rainforest.
It remains unclear what the legal or practical implications of a yes vote would be, and the referendum is widely seen as a way for the deeply unpopular dictator to drum up public support ahead of presidential elections next year.
Maduro has presented history lessons on state television, interrupted school classes to get young children to cheer on the country’s territorial claim and handed out revised maps depicting an engorged Venezuela straddling a Guyana a fraction of its internationally recognised size.
The socialist government has also released a series of highly polished campaign videos of Venezuelan children playing in the lush forests and cascading waterfalls and an official song, The Essequibo is Ours.
Venezuela’s interior minister, Vladimir Padrino López, has shown no interest in calming the rising tensions, telling his troops earlier this month: “We are ready to defend [Essequibo] to the last drop of blood and sweat.”
Though Todd says Caracas’s ambassador to Georgetown has told the country’s leadership that Venezuela has no intention of invading, Guyana remains on high alert owing to Maduro’s unpredictability.
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