Guyana/Venezuela controversy…  Maduro incensed by Sunday Chronicle lead story  –accuses publication of being ‘anti-Venezuelan’

VENEZUELA’S President NicolÁs Maduro is outraged by the Sunday, July 12 edition of the Guyana Chronicle, the lead story of which is titled, ‘Maduro’s Govt wants to ‘beat its chest’ on Essequibo claims’. The article carried recent statements made by Venezuelan Opposition Leader, Henrique Capriles, who has accused the country’s leader of using the Essequibo claim to distract the Venezuelan people from the political and economic challenges currently plaguing the oil-rich nation.

Venezuela’s President NicolÁs Maduro brandishes the front page of last Sunday’s Chronicle at a high-level meeting at Milaflores, in Caracas (Photos courtesy of VTV Channel 8)

Capriles’ comments came in the wake of Maduro’s three-and-a-half-hour long address to the Venezuelan National Assembly on Monday, July 6. “Yesterday (July 6),” Capriles was quoted in the article as saying, “we saw in the AN [National Assembly in English] that they now want to retrieve the Essequibo [but] who will believe them? “Maduro was Foreign Minister for six years, and now you realise there is a territory to claim? Please! What they want is to put an issue on the table to divert the attention of the Venezuelan people from the issues that affect them.”

In response to Capriles’ statements, a visibly agitated Maduro said, “This is the most serious thing that was done by an immature, petty, and selfish political leader,” while brandishing a translated copy of the said July 12 edition of the Sunday Chronicle at a high-level meeting in the Milaflores Presidential Palace in Caracas. “Never in your life are you [Capriles] going to be President of this Republic. The next Head of State will be a Bolivarian!” Maduro was quoted as saying by Venezuelan State agency, VTV Channel 8 (VTV Canal 8 in Spanish). Maduro reportedly went on to bash the Guyana Chronicle for being, in his view, “anti-Venezuelan”, and for having repeated campaigns and attacks against the country. He said, too, that Capriles, also the Governor of Venezuela’s Miranda State, is an agent of U.S. oil giant, ExxonMobil, acting against Venezuela. Maduro’s concern seems to be that statements made by the Venezuelan Opposition, as published so prominently in the July 12 edition of the Sunday Chronicle, could affect the advancement of his Government’s Essequibo claim to the international community. “They put it on the front page when he denigrates and rants against the country; all these arguments are used in international bodies where we bring our claim,” Maduro was again quoted by VTV Channel 8 as saying. The Venezuelan President has been accused of steering away from addressing the concerns of his country.

Washington Post’s Latin America Correspondent, Nick Miroff on Monday noted in an article: “Venezuelan President NicolÁs Maduro is facing a staggering array of problems… Things were already going badly before global oil prices tanked, so now they’re a lot worse.” “With Venezuelan crude down to about [US]$50 a barrel, Maduro’s government has been devouring its foreign currency reserves and plunging deeper into debt, though not fast enough to keep supermarkets stocked,” Miroff said in his July 13 article titled, “Why Venezuela wants to annex two-thirds of the country next door”. According to Miroff, “Annual inflation is the highest in the world, and the country’s largest bank note, $100 “strong bolivars” is now worth just 17 US cents on the black market.” Recent revelations on the border controversy show that President Maduro has mandated retired Army Colonel, Pompeyo Torrealba to lead a newly-formed government agency called “Essequibo Rescue Office”. “Setting aside for a moment the matter of political and economic priorities, the attempt to take control of two-thirds of Guyana is a somewhat strange one, in light of the hard-earned reputation of Maduro’s political mentor, the late Hugo Chavez, as a big-hearted, tireless advocate for the world’s poor,” Miroff’s Washington Post article said. Meanwhile, President David Granger has taken to the international community to denounce Maduro’s acts of aggression through an executive decree issued recently, which claims all of Guyana’s maritime space off the Atlantic Coast. This is also the area where U.S. oil giant, ExxonMobil is conducting oil explorations. “Security and stability are indispensable to sustainable development and the pursuit of prosperity. We resent, reject, and resist the threat or use of force or any unilateral coercive attempt by one state against another in order to frustrate the legitimate aspirations of our people to enjoy a good life,” President Granger told the opening plenary of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development on Monday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.