(Tribune News Service) — Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro is accusing Guyanese President Irfaan Ali of seeking to provoke an armed conflict, likening him to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom Maduro claims caused the war with Russia.

Maduro’s comments followed the incursion last week of a Venezuelan patrol vessel into waters that Guyana claims are part of its territory, threatening ExxonMobil’s offshore operations in the area and triggering a response from the U.S. government.

“The Government of Guyana has adopted a war plan against Venezuela. They believe that they will do well” in an armed conflict, Maduro said Thursday afternoon on state television. “That is why it is correct to call the president of Guyana the ‘Zelenskyy of the Caribbean’. He is a true Zelenskyy.”

The reference to the Ukrainian president was previously used this week by Maduro’s Foreign Ministry, which in a strongly worded statement accused Ali of spreading “baseless” and “blatant lies,” concerning the incursion of the Venezuelan vessel near the ExxonMobil offshore operations.

“Venezuela categorically repudiates the unsubstantiated statements of the President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, who blatantly lies in asserting that units of the Bolivarian Navy of Venezuela are violating the maritime territory of Guyana,” the Foreign Ministry said in a press release.

“In the face of the threats of conflict launched by the Caribbean Zelenskyy... Venezuela denounces this aggression and ratifies that it will deploy its Bolivarian diplomacy firmly in defense of peace, the sovereignty and dignity of its people,” it added.

Guyana said Saturday that a Venezuelan coast guard patrol entered its waters and approached an ExxonMobil vessel in an offshore oil block. This incident heightened tensions between the two countries, which are involved in a century-old dispute over the Essequibo region, a Florida-sized area that comprises more than two-thirds of Guyana.

The naval incursion triggered a stern response from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, which warned that “further provocation will result in consequences for the Maduro regime.”

The Zelenskyy reference appears to have been aimed at the United States, following the tense meeting between the Ukrainian President and President Donald Trump last week at the White House, as experts suspect that the Caracas regime deliberately moved towards escalating tensions with Guyana to trigger a shift in U.S. policy towards Venezuela.

In an analysis published this week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Washington think-tank said several indicators suggest Maduro has focused on the Essequibo dispute both to consolidate support internally and to test the geopolitical waters externally as the Trump administration moves towards hardening Washington’s stance on the regime.

The new administration shift towards readopting a policy of maximum pressure against Maduro became evident last week, when President Trump suddenly announced that his administration would suspend the license that allows Chevron to produce and sell oil out of Venezuela, in what experts agree provides a substantial financial blow to the regime’s finances.

“Maduro’s return to the Essequibo dispute comes at a particular crossroads in the evolution of the United States’ approach to Venezuela, and it is an effort to show Washington that it too can threaten U.S. interests in the region,” the center’s report said. “Maduro’s assertiveness might be intended to demonstrate that should there be a shift in U.S. policy to a harder stance, that he can sow regional instability that impacts the United States.”

The conflict between the two South American countries over the resource-rich Essequibo region has been going for over a century. Tensions escalated after a December 2023 referendum, in which Maduro sought authorization to use military force against the neighboring nation and seize the Essequibo if necessary.

Maduro claimed to have received approval from 98% of voters, despite clear evidence that the regime had tampered with the election results.

Throughout the following year, Maduro repeatedly asserted on TV that the regime would not yield Venezuela’s claim over the Essequibo region, which has been under Guyanese control since 1899, thereby keeping the issue alive in Venezuela.

Maduro also issued laws declaring the region as the country’s newest state, boosted Venezuela’s military presence near the border and has announced plans to include the Essequibo in the upcoming regional elections to chose its first governor.

Guyana requested on Thursday that the International Court of Justice order Venezuela to cancel the election.

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