Brazil will not allow Venezuela “under any circumstances” to enter its territory to invade Guyana’s Essequibo forest, Brazil’s defense minister said Monday. Tensions between the two countries over Essequibo, which represents two-thirds of Guyana, have grown in recent weeks after the government of Nicolás Maduro held a referendum and launched plans to annex the region to Venezuela’s map.
During the event at the naval headquarters in Brasilia, the Brazilian Defense Minister, Jose Mucio, was quoted by the local press as describing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s plan as a “political maneuver” and that it would lead to a confrontation between the two countries. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spoke to Maduro by phone on Saturday and said it was “important to avoid unilateral actions that could lead to an escalation of the situation”.
The joint declaration of the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), along with Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, was issued after the meeting’s biennial summit in Rio de Janeiro. In the note, they “urged both sides to negotiate and find a peaceful solution to the dispute to avoid unilateral initiatives that could aggravate it.”
Maduro and his Guyanese counterpart, Irfan Ali, are due to meet in the island of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on Thursday to discuss the dispute over Essequibo.
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