April 28, 2021
Northern South America is heating up, and not just because of the massive oil fields being discovered offshore Guyana since May 2015.
Provocative Moves
On January 7, 2021, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro launched a series of saber-rattling measures against neighboring Guyana, most notably issuing Decree No. 4.415, which claimed exclusive rights in the waters and seabed extending 200 nautical miles off the Orinoco Delta. The decree created a strategic zone, the “Territory for the Development of the Atlantic Façade,” that abuts Guyana’s maritime space northwest of the Essequibo River where several oil fields have been discovered including the Atlantic façade of the Orinoco Delta up to 200 nautical miles.