The era of gunboat diplomacy is over – Greenidge on Venezuela

Mar 08, 2021 News

“Gunboat diplomacy is a term, which speaks to the practice of implying or threatening warfare to fulfill foreign policy goals. It tends to be practiced by nations or kingdoms with immense military might.”

Kaieteur News – Government Advisor on Borders, Carl Greenidge, has no tolerance for Venezuela’s brand of diplomacy, as it promulgates its desire for Guyana’s Essequibo region.

Advisor to Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Borders, Carl Greenidge

“The era of gunboat diplomacy and forcible acquisition of foreign territory, in particular, is past,” the former Foreign Affairs Minister told Kaieteur News in an invited comment.
Gunboat diplomacy is a term, which speaks to the practice of implying or threatening warfare to fulfill foreign policy goals. It tends to be practiced by nations or kingdoms with immense military might.
This is the case for Guyana’s neighbour to the west, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Ever since Guyana discovered oil offshore, the country has ramped up its claims of ownership over the Essequibo region, which it calls ‘Guayana Esequiba.’
Most notably, in 2018, the country’s naval vessels intercepted ExxonMobil-operated vessels in Guyana’s waters, claiming that the vessels were in Venezuela’s territory. Guyana, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Guyana’s other international partners had said that Venezuela acted in violation of Guyana’s sovereign rights. International support has played a critical role in keeping Venezuela at bay.
“This is not the 19th century,” Greenidge told this newspaper. “Gunboat diplomacy is a doctrine with no place in modern Latin American international relations. A state cannot simply forcibly seize a piece of territory and the people of another state on some flimsy excuse, because it feels like it or because it chooses to rewrite or right imperial history of 150 or 350 years. People’s lives and livelihoods matter. This is the 21st century!”
For 2021 so far, Venezuela has infringed on Guyana’s territory by apprehending Guyanese fishing vessels operating in the Essequibo, and by conducting military exercises in the region. It intends to conduct further exercises. Most recently, Venezuelan lawmaker, Hermann Escarrá, announced the country’s intention to conduct the exercises in the region, following a meeting with Venezuelan military commanders and the Minister of Defence.
As Chair of ‘Special Commission for the Defence of the Guayana Esequiba Territory and Territorial Sovereignty,’ he also proposed the inclusion of the Essequibo region in Venezuela’s Constitution during a February 23 sitting of the Republic’s national assembly.
This, Escarrá said, would be done “in order to ratify that the Essequibo territory is ours.”