The intervention of the US Armed Forces Southern Command in the territorial dispute and relations between Venezuela and Guyana threatens peace in Latin America.
According to the Report, this statement was made by Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez live on Venezolana de Television.
The Minister said that the United States plans to begin “permanent military exercises in the undemarcated maritime shelf between Venezuela and Guyana and in Venezuela’s internal waters”. “The actions and presence of the US Armed Forces Southern Command on land and in the waters of the undemarcated zones are a threat to the zone of peace established by the Latin American countries,” Padrino Lopez emphasised. “No one has ever invited the United States to intervene in the relations between Venezuela and the Cooperative Republic of Guyana,” he said.
The minister said that the Venezuelan Armed Forces are conducting a permanent operation called “[General Domingo] Sifontes” in the inland waters off the country’s Atlantic coast and advised “gringos to go home”. He emphasised that the Venezuelan armed forces “will respond proportionally to any provocation”.
The minister called the head of the US Armed Forces Southern Command, General Laura Richardson, a representative of the oil company ExxonMobil, which is expected to provide the United States with energy resources. Richardson told the US Senate hearing that Guyana is an important partner of the United States in the region, spoke negatively about Venezuela’s policies and outlined plans for joint exercises with the Guyana Armed Forces.