Venezuelan electoral authorities on Sunday claimed that 95 percent of voters in a nonbinding referendum approved of the nation’s territorial claim on a huge chunk of neighboring oil-rich Guyana.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro hailed what he called “an overwhelming victory for the ‘Yes’ throughout Venezuela.”
“We have taken the first steps of a new historic stage in the struggle for what belongs to us, to recover what the liberators left us,” he said.
Photo: AFP
The referendum raised fears in Guyana and around the region about Venezuela’s ultimate intentions over the contested territory.
Maduro, who is to seek re-election next year amid a punishing economic crisis, hopes the outcome of the referendum would strengthen his nation’s century-old claim to the oil-rich Essequibo territory governed by Guyana.
“Today is a day of ratification, of national sovereignty, and the people have done it with flying colors,” Venezuelan Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino said in an evening address on state television.
About 10.5 million votes were cast by Venezuela’s 20.7 million eligible voters, Venezuelan National Electoral Council President Elvis Amoroso said.
However, the tally stirred confusion, as an opposition politician suggested that each voter cast a total of five votes — one for each question on the referendum related to Venezuela’s claim. Henrique Capriles, a two-time opposition presidential candidate, suggested that just more than 2 million voters turned out.
In Guyana, thousands of people, some of them wearing T-shirts reading “Essequibo belongs to Guyana,” formed human chains in solidarity with their government, and their president offered assurances that the nation’s borders were secure.
The Maduro government has said it is not seeking justification to invade or annex the huge territory, as some fear in Guyana, an English-speaking former British colony.
Regardless of the outcome of the vote, little will change in the short term: The people of Essequibo are not voting, and the referendum is nonbinding.
However, tensions have been rising since Guyana took bids in September for several offshore oil exploration blocks, and after a major new find was announced in October. Guyana’s petroleum reserves are similar to those of Kuwait, with the highest reserves per capita in the world.
Maduro’s government on Sunday released a video suggesting that some Guyanese would prefer to be under Venezuelan rule.
It purportedly shows an Indigenous group of Pemon people in Guyana lowering the nation’s flag and raising a Venezuelan flag in its stead. One individual begins to sing the Venezuelan national anthem.
Guyanese President Irfaan Ali on Sunday said that his government was working to protect the country’s borders and keep people safe.
“I want to assure Guyanese that there is nothing to fear,” Ali said in an address carried on Facebook.
Venezuela has claimed the huge territory of Essequibo for decades — even though its 160,000km2 represent more than two-thirds of Guyana, and its population of 125,000 is one-fifth of Guyana’s total.
Caracas contends that the Essequibo River to the region’s east is the natural border between the two countries, as declared in 1777 under Spanish rule, and that Britain wrongly appropriated Venezuelan lands in the 19th century.
However, Guyana says the border was set in the British colonial era and was confirmed in 1899 by a court of arbitration.
It says the International Court of Justice has validated this finding.
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