Higher and higher tension Venezuela: after the announcement in December by the dictator Nicolas Maduro of the annexation of neighboring Guyana (for oil), then scaled down in recent weeks, the stop by the Supreme Court to the candidacy of the opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, in the next presidential elections theoretically scheduled for October but which at this point risk not being free and democratic. Precisely for this reason, the reaction of the United States was immediate, which was already monitoring the Guyana affair with annoyance, or rather the part of the territory called Essequibo, where Exxon holds most of the extraction rights of the very rich offshore oil block of Stabroek, which has crude oil reserves of over 11 billion barrels and in which the US giant has invested 1 billion dollars, with the expectation of producing 620.000 barrels per day.
Venezuela: US sanctions return from February 13th
Here, Washington has announced that starting next 13 February will return into force sanctions against the South American country, which were eased last October to compensate for the availability of oil on the global market following the energy crisis due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, and also to send a conciliatory message to Maduro, pushing him in some way to guarantee free elections, albeit asking him in exchange for the release of American prisoners (which in fact occurred in December). Venezuela's response was that on Friday 26 January the Supreme Court declared him ineligible for a period of 15 years, with theaccusation of corruption, the candidate Maria Corina Machado, who won the opposition primaries last year, obtaining 2,4 million votes, in a country of less than 28 million inhabitants where democratic participation is not exactly encouraged.
Blocking transactions and oil, Maduro's dilemma
“They won't hold the elections without me,” protested the 56-year-old engineer, whose three collaborators were arrested last week on charges of participating in a conspiracy to assassinate President Maduro. So they will be in a few days transactions suspended between American companies and the state-owned gold mining company Minerven, while contracts on the Petroleum, which expire on April 18, will not be renewed "unless - explained the White House - all opposition candidates are readmitted to the presidential race". The international community is also raising the level of attention on the case: the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has spoken of acts "of an authoritarian regime" and of "persecution" which discourages voting, and the Organization of American States is also monitoring the issue , condemning the decision of the Supreme Court of Caracas.
“Venezuelan justice does not offer a guarantee of independence and impartiality – the organization wrote in a statement – and its position prevents the holding of free, fair and competitive elections”. In the meantime, the matter of Guyana, which for some weeks had raised fears of the explosion of a real conflict in the area, with the intervention of American but also English troops, who in fact had appeared with warships at the end of December in the gulf of Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, to mark the territory of the former colony. However, Venezuela also claims some partly legitimate rights over Essequibo, and in recent days the parties have sat around a table, offered by the Brazilian president Squid to Brasilia, to resolve the case diplomatically.
