São Paulo Forum legitimizes Venezuelan claim over Guyana territory

Photo: Anton Pentegov/Shutterstock

The secretary-general of Latin America’s top coalition of left-wing parties on Tuesday said Venezuela has a “right” to claim Essequibo, a mineral-rich area that accounts for two-thirds of the territory of Guyana.

Mônica Valente, head of the São Paulo Forum and a member of the top board of the Workers’ Party, told CNN Brasil that “it is Venezuela’s right to claim the territory of Essequibo, as it has done since the 19th century.”

The São Paulo Forum is a loose coalition of some 120 Latin American leftist parties, and, as The Brazilian Report has shown, has profoundly informed Brazil’s foreign policy under the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff administrations.

On the surface, Ms. Valente’s remarks contradict the stance of Defense Minister José Múcio Monteiro, who on Monday said that “in no circumstances” will Brazil allow troops from Venezuela to enter its territory in order to invade Guyana.

They fit neatly, however, in the Lula administration’s position of refraining from any responsibility for a conflict, rather than actively trying to persuade Venezuela not to attack.

Earlier this month, Brazil’s top ambassador for Latin American affairs said that Venezuela’s referendum for citizens to decide whether the country should claim sovereignty over Essequibo was an “internal affair.”

Following the results of the referendum, President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela ordered the “immediate” exploitation of natural resources in the region — and presented a new map of his country, including Essequibo within its borders.

Since taking office on January 1, Lula has renewed his efforts to normalize the regimes in Nicaragua and especially in Venezuela. While hosting President Maduro in May, Lula said that Venezuela should “build its own narrative” about democracy.

Mr. Maduro is to meet his Guyanese counterpart, Irfaan Ali, face-to-face on Thursday in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines — the country that currently holds the presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

In a recent interview, President Ali said that Guyana is a “peace-abiding country”, and that the controversy should be addressed by the UN’s International Court of Justice.