Will Venezuela’s Maduro Provoke Major Crisis in a Bid to Regain Popular Support?

Since his arrival on power, the late Hugo Chávez abandoned the effort to resolve the dispute partly by pressures from Fidel Castro (an ally of Guyana who had been using the country as a refueling station for his planes during the war in Angola) and, partly, because he didn’t want to offend members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), whose support was crucial in international forums such as the OAS and the UN. Chávez neither defined the maritime boundaries of Venezuela with Guyana, thus facilitating Guyana the awarding of oil exploration contracts in blocks in the own Guyana region, in disputed areas and in areas that clearly belonged to Venezuela. Now, with Nicolás Maduro at the helm of power, a new chapter of this legendary dispute has begun, when an exploration platform of ExxonMobil struck oil in one of those blocks: Stabroek. More…