Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali addressed a group of his country’s private sector leaders on Dec. 31, 2023, and stated: “At the end, Guyana and Venezuela will still remain neighbors. We have to work in a collaborative way for the betterment of the region. We have resources that are similar, resources that can be deployed effectively to the energy, security of the region leading to the food security of the region.”
The two countries last December had a tense stand-off over the disputed Essequibo region of Guyana and its offshore oil deposits, tensions promoted and aggravated by the British and their American geopolitical cohorts. The dangerous situation was defused—albeit temporarily—by regional leaders led by Brazil’s President Lula da Silva who organized a meeting between Ali and his Venezuela counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which ended with both parties signing the “Argyle Declaration,” an 11-point agreement to address their border controversy peacefully and through negotiations.
