Guyana – The Pull Of The Land

Essequibo II

August 13, 2026August 13, 2026 Richard Barnes

Oilprice.com reported an under-the-radar blockbuster story in late July regarding the amazing surge in oil exports from Guyana.

Brief Background

The reader might want to check my post on Essequibo for some background on the fraught history between Venezuela and Guyana. Very briefly, Guyana was formerly known as British Guiana and was a possession of England long before Venezuela ceased to be a Spanish colony in the 19th Century.

After the wars of independence, Venezuela, seeing that British Guiana had significant gold deposits, claimed most of that territory for herself. The British told them to pound sand, at which Venezuela appealed to the United States for resolution. In a nutshell, President Grover Cleveland persuaded both parties to agree to arbitration and, given the voluminous records available, the results of arbitration, to which both parties officially agreed, established the boundaries as they were taught to me during my childhood years in Venezuela, including Venezuela’s claim to the entirety of the Orinoco Delta.

The level of satisfaction by Venezuela to this resolution can be inferred from the fact that when President Cleveland died in 1908, Venezuela lowered her flags to half-mast.

That was then.

In the latter 20th Century Venezuela again demanded the territory and in late 2024 had moved “tanks, missile equipped patrol boats, and armored carriers” to the border while raising the volume of jingoistic pronouncements to alarming levels. As my Essequibo post noted, “Historically, ‘revolutionary’ regimes, which emphatically include Communist and Socialist inspired governments, seek confrontations and conflicts as they point fingers to ‘the other’ as excuses for their own failures…”

Venezuela’s claims have been ingrained in school children for generations now, so much so that when a recent article published a map of the country sans the claimed territory, the comments by Venezuelan readers were astonishingly virulent, I am sorry to say.

The Essequibo controversy has been subsumed by the events of the past twelve months, including the Maduro capture and the wars with Iran. Not to mention the earthquakes this past June.

Stunning Developments

Such events have also overshadowed some truly stunning developments in Guyana herself.

Her oil exports — close to 1 million barrels daily — will soon surpass Venezuela’s. And, as I understand it, these exports are mostly — if not entirely — from off shore rigs which have achieved such respectable numbers in a mere four years, measured from discovery to extraction and production.

Exxon-Mobile has done a phenomenal job working with Guyana and getting this multi-billion dollar project to succeed. This was despite the aforementioned territorial dispute with Venezuela which, if Venezuela had succeeded, would have expropriated territorial waters where Exxon is operating — almost 7 million acres holding an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil and the only operational oil fields in Guyana.

And there is an additional floating production site expected to go online this year. Should that go as planned, Guyana will surpass Venezuela’s output. That site and related storage and extraction investments are estimated to cost about $13 Billion.

Exxon continues to invest in Guyana, with yet another project expected to go online next year and others in 2029 and 2030.

Guyana has provided a measure of stability and political predictability which in turn encourage private enterprises to risk billions of dollars in exploration and extraction, not to mention ongoing maintenance and calibration which extend and expand the productive life of the massive operations.

This was the environment in Venezuela in the first half of the 20th Century. For just two posts descriptive of that era see An Empire Named San Tomé and Ranchitos IV.

At present, after the extraction of Maduro, Venezuela is doing her best to expand production; however, her growth is “constrained by the need to rebuild her heavily corroded petroleum infrastructure. This will require billions of dollars and at least a decade.” That’s billions of dollars, not to expand new production, but to get its massive infrastructure back up to par, to where it was at the turn of this century.

However, Maduro’s extraction was good news for Guyana as it removed that ongoing threat of military action against her.

A stable political and economic environment in a resource rich land will do wonders for its people as well as for the world.

This good news from Guyana will not immediately offset the loss of global supply caused by the wars on Iran — where 20 million barrels of oil shipped daily prior to hostilities. That is down to a fraction today. However, at least for the Americas, Guyana is welcome news, especially when considering that she is in the early stages of development: similar to Venezuela in the early 20th Century.

Guyana, coupled with Brazil and Argentina, may upend the global energy map away from the Gulf Cooperating Council (GCC) to our continent, which as far as we know, is not expected to be as volatile a region as the Middle East thereby allowing its energy economic activities to proceed without “choke points” and other turmoil.

This post is intended to give information about hopeful developments in South America. I have no illusions concerning the very serious disruptions caused by the Iran wars and sincerely hope and pray they come to a conclusion “yesterday”. The hopeful developments in Guyana will not cover or cancel the impact of the drastic reduction of Hormuz traffic anytime soon.

But the news that is bubbling up down there is good and, all things being equal, will eventually give us a greater measure of energy self-sufficiency.

An Exxon Mobile floating production storage and offloading vessel offshore Guyana

Exxon’s ninth discovery; they waste no time in building for it

Essequibo Update

May 20, 2025May 20, 2025 Richard Barnes

For background on the tensions between Venezuela and Guyana, see Essequibo.

In a nutshell, over a century ago, in 1899, Venezuela requested the United States arbitrate a dispute between Venezuela and England. Both countries agreed to abide by the outcome. As it turned out, volumes of documentation were available and the dispute was settled.

However, over half a century later, in 1962, under the administration of her celebrated first democratically elected president, Venezuela repudiated the agreement and began announcing her 19th Century claim in official maps and documents.

But it was under Chavismo that the dispute’s temperature shot up.

In February of this year, six Guyanese soldiers were fired upon from the Venezuelan side of the Cuyuní River, the river which for about 60 miles marks the current, internationally recognized border. Guyana filed formal protests which were promptly ignored.

This past Thursday, May 17, Guyanese soldiers were fired upon at least three times from the Venezuelan side by armed men dressed in civilian clothes. This has caused Guyana to “intensify” its military presence along the Cuyuní.

More ominously is the backdrop to all this: the Maduro regime has announced legislative “elections” for the area claimed by Venezuela. Those elections are scheduled to take place next Sunday, May 25. Guyana has forcefully denounced this brazen provocation, although how elections can take place in a foreign country on behalf of another country is a mystery to most. Nevertheless, we have learned not to underestimate the uses of power when it comes to Socialism.

After Thursday’s incident, Maduro’s vice-president, Delcy Rodriguez, who is also the “Minister of Hydrocarbons”, further escalated the provocations by reaffirming the “transcendental” regional elections wherein a governor and legislators for the region will be named and went on to further rhapsodize on this “political opportunity … for the defense … of an energetic political sovereignty over the resources” of Venezuela.

The area in question is about 62,000 square miles, close to twice the size of the Orinoco Mining Arc and well over half the size of Guyana.

It would mean the expansion and strengthening of criminal enterprises such as the Aragua Train (Tren de Aragua) and others and their partnership with the Socialist regime in Venezuela.

And it would mean even more pollution in these and other South American rivers. In fact, there is already terrible pollution in along the banks of the Cuyuní; but no one is very sure if this is due to illegal mining by Venezuelans or Guyanese or both. Guyanese officials have sounded the alarm for years that not energetically intercepting such operations, not only endangers waters, fish, and other sustenance, but also their territorial integrity.

I believe those officials have been right all along and are now being proved so.

To say tensions are at explosive levels is to put it mildly.

The critical and urgent nature of the major trouble spots in Eastern Europe and Western Asia require our attention and understandably so, given our close to century-long involvements. A righteous nation extricates itself from such with diplomacy and honor and I hope we do so.

However, we must at the least recognize that South America is in our own neighborhood and our commonality with such is far stronger than with the other side of the oceans. We ought to exercise powerful diplomacy to at the least seek to reduce the stresses that have been allowed to surge in the recent generation or two.

I pray we do this well for what happens in our own neighborhood will impact us in the short and in the long run. Alas, it is already affecting us greatly.

View of the Cuyuní River in Guyana

Guyanese patrol boat on the Cuyuní. These patrols have intensified; however, Venezuela’s military buildup is massive

Grave pollution follows illegal mining on the Cuyuní. Guyanese officials plead for intervention to stop this activity as it not only pollutes the rivers but also increases the threat to Guyanese border integrity.

Most official maps now reflect the “Zona en Reclamación”. This area “reclaimed” by the Venezuelan authorities comprises well over half of Guyana and is almost twice the size of the Orinoco Mining Arc.

Updates

May 22, 2024May 22, 2024 Richard Barnes

Over the years I’ve posted events or issues of immediate concern regarding Venezuela. My lack of ongoing follow-ups on those is simply due to the nature of this blog, which is not current events or news, but rather more of an interest in lesser known background and historical material.

Nevertheless, every once in a while, it is good to update certain matters raised in past posts.

Acosta Arevalo (2019)

This post’s title covers the essence: “Venezuelan Navy Captain Dies After Signs of Torture”. His autopsy revealed 38 torture related injuries. To this day, no one has been prosecuted for this atrocity. And that is one reason why such abominations have persisted. The latest that we know of is the case of Rocío San Miguel who in February of this year was arrested in Maiquetía, the international airport which serves Caracas, as she and her daughter were about to board a plane for a short trip to Miami. She has become one of the many “forced disappearances” in that stricken land. Last we know is that she has been charged for terrorism and conspiracy (seems that such charges are favorites of an entrenched ruling class) and is now in the Helicoide, a notorious detention center known for the brutality of its caretakers. In short, the brazen illegal and immoral treatment of the Navy captain has become a portent of worse events thereafter.

As a side note, the Helicoide was almost completed during the presidency of Marcos Pérez Jiménez. However, the army-led coup put off the completion for decades as the structure originally intended as a futuristic shopping mall with drive-in boutiques — with all spaces pre-sold, providing sufficient financing for its construction — became a state-owned torture chamber.

Humanitarian Crisis (2019) Darien Gap (2022)

The situation has worsened but at least its reality is better known than the inhumane treatment of citizens who have fallen into the clutches of the Communist dictatorship. It is very unfortunate that many who have crossed the Darien Gap and reached our borders do not mean us well. Unfortunate because many more do mean us well and are simply grateful to have been able to escape Venezuela.

It is difficult for us to appreciate the difficulty — physically and psychologically — of many thousands good folks who escape. Venezuelans are similar to Russians in this regard. They do not see themselves ever leaving their land. The pull is just too strong. They are like Dr. Zhivago: “He’ll never leave, [no matter how disastrously he has been treated].” However, the situation has become so unbearable that many have indeed taken the fateful step to go. I know one head of family who always told me, “I will never leave. No reason to do so.” He is now in another country along with his wife and children. There comes a time when one must take steps previously inconceivable.

Elections (2020)

Venezuela is headed to presidential elections on July 28 of this year (2024). However, shameless attempts to game the results since the early 21st Century have left the Venezuelan people worse than jaded. They “know” elections mean nothing in their country.

Nevertheless, there is palpable excitement this year and the hope is that the results will be so overwhelming for the opposition that the usual shenanigans won’t succeed. Many, however, are not so sanguine. Since the early 2000s the regime has muscled through ultracrepidarian power plays which have placed the counting of the votes in their own hands. Stalin was known to have said: “I consider it completely unimportant who will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how (cited by his former secretary, Boris Bazhanov).”

I believe Venezuelans will vote this year, even if the opposition candidate lands in the Helicoide. But we will have to wait and see how the vote counting goes.

Essequibo (2024)

The war drums on the part of the Venezuela ruling class against the people of Guyana has not receded. However, the silence on this issue on the part of western media is deafening. The issue is alive and threatening, right in our own back yard, while we are invited to “Look! A squirrel!” towards Ukraine and the Middle East.

Throughout history all self-described Socialist regimes have promoted wars, not only against their own peoples but against other countries. Venezuela is no exception.

In addition, as is well-known, in the last two or three years the United States strategic oil reserves have been depleted to an unheard of level. Should there be oil disruptions because of a Venezuela – Guyana conflict coupled with Middle Eastern uncertainty (Saudi Arabia’s king has been hospitalized), we could experience disruptions not seen in many years.

When we pray for our friends in Venezuela, we also pray for ourselves in the United States.

Chile and Venezuela Contrast (2019)

In 2019, economist Steve Hanke published a short video on X (formerly Twitter) that is still relevant today. True, Chile has since again succumbed to the Socialist siren call but not to Venezuela’s degree.

Here is the Hanke video, which is worth another look:

Steve Hanke on X: “#Chile liberalized its economy and enjoys a high quality of life and freedom. #Venezuela embraced socialism and is now one of the world’s poorest nations and under a dictatorship. https://t.co/rzGzYyX9VI” / X

The Helicoide

Darien Gap

Essequibo River

Essequibo

February 11, 2024February 11, 2024 Richard Barnes

Mostly under the radar to the rest of the world, but very much on the minds and attitudes of the people of Guyana and on the Venezuelan political class, the long simmering Venezuelan claim over a vast, oil rich area of the Guiana Highlands is dangerously close to erupting.

The highlands are “a heavily forested plateau and low-mountain region north of the Amazon and south of the Orinoco River. This extensive natural border, coupled with nonexistent infrastructure and insufficient political willingness to cooperate from both sides, has left Guyana — and its institutions, customs, culture, and people — as an enigma to the majority of Venezuelans [Caracas Chronicles, February 2, 2024]”. No doubt the same can be said about the Guyanese people’s perceptions about Venezuela.

Two months ago, on December 3, 2023, the Maduro regime claimed an overwhelming “victory” in a referendum where over 95% of the Venezuelan people in effect voted to take over the region and to reject any past or future international arbitration agreements. Of course, since the early naughts any results from “elections” or “referendums” in Venezuela are trusted only by those who believe in the tooth fairy.

Nevertheless, the Maduro regime is proceeding as if an invasion is the “will of the people” (Rousseau is very much with us, no?).

As noted by the Caracas Chronicles, “In the slums of Caracas and in towns closer to the border with Guyana, people remain focused on their many other problems and see the chauvinistic campaign as a bad thing.”

As well they should.

Since the referendum, the people and authorities of Guyana see the 20,000-plus Venezuelan immigrants as Trojan Horse infiltrators and are making life increasingly difficult for them. These are not “military age single men” such as are being seen in the United States southern border, but rather very poor people who escaped Venezuela in search for a way to feed their families. Guyana has historically never refused them entry.

Brief Background

British Guiana was a possession of England since long before Venezuela had come into existence in the 19th Century. It was only after the terrible revolutionary wars of South America that Venezuela, seeing that the British region contained gold deposits, claimed much of the British colony for herself.

The British were not impressed; however, they were willing to settle the controversy. As far back as 1840 they commissioned Sir Robert Schomburgk to ascertain the true boundary. He made a careful survey which the Venezuelans promptly dismissed.

Then, in 1895, the Venezuelans turned to the United States whose Anglophobe Secretary of State, Richard Olney, wrote a fierce letter to England’s Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, who replied several months later, correcting Olney’s interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine, which barred European powers from imposing their systems of governance onto the Americas but did not enter into border disputes. His reply also had the air of a college professor correcting a freshman student’s obvious grammatical errors.

Salisbury was undoubtedly correct; however, he was diplomatically unwise, not having read the American mood at the time, which was not very pro-British. Lord Salisbury turned his attention to England’s far flung empire, no doubt figuring the Americans would not bother further over that jungle-matted territory.

He figured wrong. President Grover Cleveland sought approval from Congress to appropriate funds for American arbitration of the border dispute, which request was approved unanimously, with a whoop and a holler, by both houses of Congress. The mood was of war with England, should it be necessary.

This was, of course, foolish on the part of the jingoists. England’s navy alone could wreak havoc on America’s coasts. Also, most American’s did not even know where British Guiana was on the map and could not care less, meaning enthusiasm was only temporary.

Across the ocean, similar sentiments prevailed. Most Englishmen agreed that a mosquito-infested piece of the South American jungle was not worth any war, no matter how many gold reserves it might have; after all, England had a corner of the world’s gold without counting the disputed highlands. Besides, the British were far more concerned with the rising power of Germany and also the obstreperous Boers in South Africa, which Germany was cheering on.

Europe’s discords continued to work to America’s advantage.

So the British agreed to arbitration and provided the Americans with massive amounts of documents and data which helped greatly in the push towards a reasonable and fair settlement. The Americans persuaded the Venezuelans to sign a treaty with England which called for the submission of the border dispute to international arbitration. This was a significant concession by England who knew that arbitrations tended to “split the difference”. The concern was that Venezuela, most unreasonably, claimed most of British Guiana, while England claimed far less of Venezuela.

The decision was issued about two years later and generally followed the Schomburgk line, with two important exceptions. “First, Venezuela secured a considerable area at the southern end; secondly, and much more significantly, she obtained control of the mouth of the Orinoco River [A Diplomatic History of the American People].”

It was Venezuela who had sought “Yankee intervention”. And when Cleveland died in 1908, Venezuela lowered her flags to half mast.

Current Situation

And now, Venezuela has moved “light tanks, missile-equipped patrol boats, and armored carriers to the two countries’ border in what is quickly turning into a new security challenge…. [Wall Street Journal, February 9, 2024].”

Historically, “revolutionary” regimes, which emphatically include Communist and Socialist inspired governments, seek confrontations and conflicts as they point fingers to “the other” as excuses for their own failures. History has ample evidence of this, from the French Revolution and it’s progeny throughout the earth, including the South American revolutionary wars of the 19th Century, the Russian Revolution and its progeny in the 20th, and the thirst for wars of the “free” governments of the 21st.

Essequibo refers to the name of a major river in Guyana. Venezuela aims to push their territorial claims to that river as they seek to take over most of her neighbor’s territory.

Pray for the peoples of Venezuela and Guyana.