Venezuela Expands Military Presence at Guyana Border

• Venezuela continues to build up military infrastructure and hardware close to the border with Guyana as President Nicolas Maduro and his supporters scale up their threats to annex an oil-rich piece of Guyanese land.
• In a report shared with CNN, the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) warns that while the Venezuelan government “has little to gain and much to lose from a full-blown conflict” it continues to play “a dangerous game” over its claim over the densely forested Essequibo region.
• “The constant drumbeat asserting ‘the Essequibo is ours,’ alongside the creation of new military commands and legal structures to oversee the defence of the region, is helping to institutionalise a sense of perpetual prewar footing,” it wrote.
• There has been speculation that the upcoming Venezuelan elections at the end of July have given Maduro the motivation to escalate against Guyana, using it as a way to distract from his record: Millions of people have fled the country due to poor economic conditions, food shortages and limited access to health care.
• CSIS argues that instead of tamping down the aggression after the vote, “Maduro may be tempted to ramp up both rhetoric and action related to the Essequibo in a true gambit to manufacture a regional crisis in the aftermath of a stolen election.”
• It may not be in Maduro’s interest to “initiate a full-blown conflict with neighbour Guyana, but his escalatory rhetoric tethers his political reputation and legitimacy to his willingness to back his words with force”, especially with his key internal ally, the armed forces, CSIS writes. “Thus, one of the most concerning possibilities is that Maduro will fall victim to his own rhetoric. He has whipped up nationalist passions without providing an escape valve.”

(Source: CNN)