Venezuela responds with patrols to the Atlantic front
Boats from the United States and Guyana in the combined exercises. Photo: Guyana Defense Force
14/01/2021 | Caracas
Carlos I. Hernndez
The United States and Guyana conducted a combined naval exercise and signed a cooperation agreement in the area of defense. This deployment takes place within the framework of the growing tensions between the English-speaking South American nation and Venezuela, in relation to the Venezuelan claim of the territory of the Exsequibo.
The combined naval exercise took place on January 9, off the coast of Guyana. the US Coast Guard deployed the cutter Stone of the USCGC (WMSL-758), while the Guyana Coast Guard participated with smaller port patrol boats, type 957Y i Metal shark 38 Challenging.
the Stone of the USCGC is a class patrol boat Legend built by the shipyard Huntington Ingalls Industries, From Pascagoula, Mississippi, and delivered in November 2020. It weighs 4,500 tons and is 127 meters long, 16 meters wide and 6.9 meters deep. The armament is made up of a cannon Mk-110 of 57 mm, a cannon Phalange Block 1B 20mm, two 12.7mm machine guns and two machine guns M240 of 7.62 mm. It has a flight deck and a hangar with the capacity to house two helicopters Airbus MH-65C Dolphin MCH. Its crew is made up of 120 crew members.
In relation to the Guyanese units, coastguard of this country has five patrol boats type 957Y given by China in April 2017 and February 2019, as reported Infodefensa.com, While the seven metal speedboats Shark 38 Challenging available, were received in the course of 2014 and March 2017.
New agreement in Defense
Later, on January 11, the commander of the Southern United States Command (US Southern Command), Admiral Craig S. Faller, Visited Guyana to sign a Acquisition and cross-service agreement with the head of the General Staff from Defense Force, brigadier Godfrey Bess, The purpose is to simplify the process of exchanging goods or services “to support effective and mutually beneficial defense cooperation.”
The United States and Guyana have been tightening ties in the military in recent times. In September 2020, they signed the Ship pilot agreement, Focused on cooperation in the naval area, which includes the performance of combined exercises as performed in previous days. In addition, that same month, the United States gave the Guyana Coast Guard engines and parts for its vessels, as also reviewed Infodefensa.com.
Reaction of Venezuela
A new incident has occurred in the Venezuelan claim of 159,000 km of the Territory of the Sesequibo, at the moment in possession of Guyana, old English Guiana reason for which “inherited” it of the United Kingdom. Venezuela was stripped of this territory, in 1899, by an Arbitral Tribunal, constituted in Paris, the judges were British, American and Russian, and in which it was not allowed to participate in the deliberations.
In 1966, Venezuela and Guyana signed an agreement in Geneva by which they agreed to seek a solution to the territorial dispute under the auspices of the United Nations. However, in January 2018, the UN, at the request of Guyana, decided to refer the case to the International Court of Justice, an instance that Venezuela does not recognize in the context of the claim, and in a recent decision , this body admitted its jurisdiction in the Venezuelan claim for the territory of Esequibo, which has aggravated relations between the two countries because the Geneva Agreement is unilaterally unknown.
In this order of events, on January 8, the Venezuelan government, to strengthen the territorial claim, decreed the establishment of the Strategic Development Zone of the Atlantic Facade, Which aims to provide “protection and safeguarding of jurisdiction” in this territory.
In addition, it has been ordered to increase the active presence of military units through permanent patrol in all areas of the Atlantic façade at the same time as, through the Minister of Popular Power for Defense, the US-Guyanese combined naval maneuvers and the presence of the commander of the Southern Command in Guyana were denounced and rejected.
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