Professor Anthony Bryan, former director of international relations and senior honorary fellow at the Institute of International Relations at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine says Venezuela’s plans to annex Essequibo in Guyana is a move to ‘stir up’ nationalistic passion ahead of the country’s presidential election next year, while scaring investors away from Guyana.

“We have to look at the reasons for Venezuela’s velocity and I think the answer is that when you renew old claims on Guyana, [Nicolas] Maduro is seeking to stir up nationalistic passion, take some of the heat off his corrupt regime, and put impression Guyana also allows Maduro an opportunity to strike back in some way against the U.S [United States] which he regards as the vein of his regime. Remember anti-yankee sentiments are part of the Venezuelan character,” said Bryan.

There has been an ongoing territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana over the oil-rich Essequibo region in Guyana.

Venezuela argues that the territory belongs to it because the Essequibo was within its boundaries during the Spanish Colonial period.

Venezuela recently held a referendum over the territorial dispute where voters reportedly approved a claim of sovereignty over the territory.

“The risks from the current episode of Maduro’s claim are immense, asking the Venezuelan people to weigh in on this Maduro maybe driving nationalistic passion that he will struggle to control. Reading the Maduro playbook so far signals that he prefers an economic war to a military one. He wants to scare investors away from Guyana or make the cost of doing business there very high,” Bryan outlined.

Analyzing the current territorial dispute between the two countries, Bryan is advocating for a regional energy cooperation, exempting Venezuela.

“I think the final analysis, let us talk about Caribbean regional energy cooperation that is T&T, Guyana, Suriname without Venezuela,” he suggested.

He was speaking at a University of the West Indies Vice-Chancellor’s forum themed ‘Guarding Sovereignty’, where several experts came together to examine the political and legal issues arising from the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy.