Tensions over Essequibo region resurface as Venezuela completes a bridge to a disputed border base

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GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Guyana’s government Saturday formally protested to Venezuela following the completion by Venezuela's armed forces of a bridge built on a remote river island shared by both countries. Work on the bridge, which links Venezuela’s mainland to a military base, has caused a decades-old row over border lines in the Essequibo region to flare up again.

Guyana Foreign Minister Hugh Todd said in a statement that he was forced to summon Venezuelan Ambassador Amador Perez Silva to his office Thursday to condemn the move by Venezuela to build the bridge.

The bridge links Venezuela's mainland to the eastern side of Ankoko island. The ministry claims the bridge connects the Venezuelan mainland to a small military base that Venezuela built illegally on Guyana's side of Ankoko, a small island that is mostly inhabited by gold miners and military personnel.

The two neighboring states have feuded over land and maritime borders for decades as Venezuela claims that an 1890s boundaries commission cheated it out of the oil rich Essequibo region. The region currently makes up two-thirds of Guyana's territory. The area was administered by Britain for more than a century, and it has been under Guyanese control since 1966, when the nation gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

Last year, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro threatened to annex the region by force, following a referendum in which Venezuelan voters were asked if the Essequibo should be turned into a Venezuelan state. But Caribbean leaders, Brazil and the U.N. organized an emergency summit between the presidents of both nations on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, where they agreed to resolve the dispute though peaceful means, and to avoid taking actions that would raise tensions.

On Thursday, Todd said that Venezuela's decision to build the Ankoko island bridge violated the St Vincent agreement.

“Venezuela’s activities, including its military activities east of the boundary line, violate Guyana’s sovereignty, and international law requires that they be halted and that all personnel, facilities or equipment built or brought there by Venezuela be removed,” the ministry said.

Guyana has argued the case in the World Court in The Netherlands for a final settlement and recently submitted its last piece of evidence to the court. Venezuela has until August to reply.

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