JOHN MAIR: Britain must not repeat the mistakes of the Falklands and let my homeland Guyana be invaded by a South American dictator who wants to plunder its oil

For half a century, Britain has been fond of trumpeting the shared values of the 50 or so Commonwealth nations and the invisible ties that bind them to the ‘mother country’. But rarely has the strength of those ties been truly tested.

All that may change in a dispute over a country that for centuries has been the reputed location of El Dorado, the fabled lost city of gold, whose vast riches lured generations of fortune-hunters.

Sir Walter Raleigh twice ventured up the nearby Orinoco River in search of this mythical fortune, the second time losing his son, also Walter, in a fight with the Spanish.

Now the Venezuelan dictator President Nicolas Maduro has staked an extraordinary territorial claim for two-thirds of the Commonwealth state of Guyana, the only English-speaking country on the mainland of South America.

In a manner well-trodden by tinpot Latin American autocrats, Maduro is gambling that a small regional war will galvanise his fractured nation and deflect attention from the endless political and economic crises that have seen more than 7 million Venezuelans flee the country.

The Venezuelan dictator President Nicolas Maduro has staked an extraordinary territorial claim for two-thirds of the Commonwealth state of Guyana

Guyana is the only English-speaking country on the mainland of South America. Pictured: Kaieteur Falls in Guyana 

Human Rights Watch says that under his brutal Marxist dictatorship, a further 19,000 of his opponents have been killed by security forces alleging ‘resistance to authority’.

But there is far more at stake than mere politics. Until recently, Guyana was as poor as the benighted Caribbean island of Haiti. The brightest and best young people in the country had little choice but to seek their fortunes elsewhere.

I was one of them: I was born in Guyana and left at the age of 11 to go to school in Britain, where I have remained ever since.

Others of the Guyanese diaspora in Britain are former West Indies cricket captain Sir Clive Lloyd, Labour shadow foreign secretary David Lammy and broadcaster Sir Trevor Phillips.

But today, this small cricket- loving country of just 800,000 citizens boasts one of the planet’s fastest-growing economies after one of the world’s richest oilfields was discovered under the shallow seas off the Guyanese coast — truly, a modern-day Oil Dorado.

READ MORE: US to conduct military flights over Guyana as fears of a Venezuela invasion grow

This unimaginable wealth lying off the Essequibo river delta is what the thuggish Maduro wants. And he is prepared to use the might of the fourth-largest army in South America to get his hands on it. 

Indeed, if Venezuela invades, the war could be over within hours: Guyana has only a few thousand trained troops; one, maybe two, planes; and a single helicopter — a second recently crashed with officers on board on a mission to the disputed Essequibo region.

For students of British history, the scenario is eerily similar to the build-up to the Falklands war in 1982: a jingoistic South American dictator picks a fight with a much smaller neighbour with centuries-old British ties.

Only a few days ago, a group of people provocatively raised a Venezuelan flag over Essequibo — a sparsely populated region chiefly comprising rainforest and the occasional gold mine — in an echo of when a group of Argentinian scrap metal merchants hoisted the Argentine flag over the island of South Georgia.

Just like the Falklands, the ownership of Essequibo has long been in dispute. Venezuela has claimed sovereignty over the region since it was awarded to Guyana — then the UK colony of British Guiana — in 1899 by an international arbitration panel in Paris. Nothing has changed since in international law, but oil has added an urgency to the claim of Caracas.

In what appears to be a move from his backer Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine playbook, Maduro held a referendum two weeks ago which he said provided overwhelming backing for his territorial claim. He declared it gave him the authority to ignore international courts and the right to issue Venezuelan citizenship to the residents of the disputed territory.

Indeed, if Venezuela invades, the war could be over within hours: Guyana (pictured) has only a few thousand trained troops; one, maybe two, planes; and a single helicopter

The tens of thousands of Venezuelans who live in Guyana (pictured) are no friends of Maduro either — in fact, they are refugees from his dysfunctional socialist ‘Utopia’

Not that the Guyanese were asked. And even if they were, few would want Venezuelan citizenship. I visit Guyana often and have written about the country’s oil boom, which by 2027 is projected to give it the highest per capita income in the world — higher even than the United Arab Emirates.

I have seen the benefits starting to trickle out through new roads, new schools and the provision of plots of land so people can build homes. Just like in other countries, though, only the lucky few will get very rich from the black gold of Guyana. But the oil industry will bring many highly skilled, well-paid jobs — and recruitment and training is already underway.

The Guyanese people know they will never see the dawn of a bright new future if Maduro and his henchmen annexe a huge part of their country, and with it the unimaginably rich offshore drilling rights — 35 out of 40 wells drilled so far have proved to be viable, a hit rate without parallel in what could turn out to be the world’s last great oil rush.

The tens of thousands of Venezuelans who live in Guyana are no friends of Maduro either — in fact, they are refugees from his dysfunctional socialist ‘Utopia’.

For all their sakes, it’s vitally important that the British Government does not repeat its mistake of ignoring the jungle drums of General Galtieri and his Argentinian military junta in the early 1980s. It is equally important the international community does not repeat its mistake of ignoring Putin’s intentions in Ukraine.

Britain and the Western world must not facilitate Maduro’s expansionist greed through complacency and inaction. Yes, it’s true that unlike the Falklands — a British Overseas Territory — Britain has no duty to come to the aid of Guyana, which has been independent since 1966.

And the Commonwealth is not and has never claimed to be a defence organisation.

However, Britain cannot deny it has long historic and cultural links with Guyana — and the support London offers will be crucial not only for the future of Guyana, but the Commonwealth as a whole.

READ MORE: How Venezuela’s 123,000-strong forces could launch an unorthodox attack to overwhelm Guyana’s 3,400 troops as Maduro wields his might over oil-rich region 

Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Scotland has made a good start by unequivocally stating that the organisation stands for the rule of law. She added that the Commonwealth ‘reaffirms its firm and steadfast support for the maintenance and preservation of the sovereign and territorial integrity of Guyana, and… its rights to develop the entirety of its territory for the benefit of its people’.

The British Government has joined the U.S. in declaring unwavering support for Guyanese sovereignty while Brazil’s military intelligence detected a build-up of Venezuelan armed forces near the Guyana border and moved forces there to prevent an invasion through Brazilian land.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Southern Command, which provides security co-operation in Latin America, has conducted military flight operations with the Guyanese military over the disputed region. These sorts of ‘boots on the ground’, including the dispatch of naval ships and diplomatic threats to impose harsh economic sanctions on Venezuela should any invasion take place, all have a part to play in deterring Maduro.

Many local commentators believed Guyanese President Irfaan Ali was wrong to meet Maduro yesterday in St Vincent and the Grenadines. But Dr Ali has so far been steadfast, calling Maduro an ‘outlaw’ and insisting the discussions will be dictated by the fact of the 1899 ruling that granted Essequibo to Guyana.

Yet with a tiny army facing a 135,000-strong Venezuelan military equipped with Russian fighter jets, it is essential the U.S. — which has huge commercial interests in the new oilfields — and Britain, which has deep cultural ties, stand firmly behind President Ali.

Because if Britain doesn’t support Guyana, it begs the question what is the Commonwealth actually for. And if Britain fails the test, what future can the Commonwealth possibly have?

• John Mair is the editor of Oil Dorado: Guyana’s Black Gold, published by Bite Sized Books.

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