By Humeyra Pamuk and Kemol King
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State warned Venezuela on Thursday that it would be “a very bad day” for the South American country if it were to attack its neighbor Guyana or U.S.-based energy giant ExxonMobil, in comments that threatened unspecified action in such a case.
Caracas condemned Rubio’s remarks, made during a visit to Guyana’s capital.
Guyana and Venezuela are locked in a long-running dispute about which country has rights over the 160,000-square-km (62,000-square-mile) Esequibo area, which is the subject of an ongoing case at the International Court of Justice.
Washington has offered military support to Guyana, a tiny South American country, amid the dispute and increasing U.S.
sanctions on Venezuela.
“It would be a very bad day for the Venezuelan regime if they were to attack Guyana or attack ExxonMobil or anything,” Rubio said. “It would be a very bad day, a very bad week for them, and it would not end well for them.
I’m not going to get into details of what we’ll do. We’re not big on those kinds of threats.”
Tensions rose early this month when Guyana said a Venezuela coast guard patrol entered its waters and approached an output vessel in an offshore oil block operated by Exxon.
Venezuela has said the vessel did not enter Guyanese waters as the maritime zone delimitation is still pending as part of the dispute.
“Venezuela will not surrender in the face of intimidation, nor will it cede before the extortion of those who think incendiary speeches will twist history,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said in a post on Telegram.
Venezuela would not permit “foreign interests to rewrite the reality of our Esequibo,” he added.
The U.S. Navy cruiser Normandy and the Guyana Defence Force patrol vessel Shahoud were conducting exercises in international waters and the Guyana Exclusive Economic Zone, the U.S.
embassy in Guyana said in a social media post early on Thursday.
A consortium by Exxon, Hess and China’s CNOOC controls all oil and gas output in Guyana, which this year is producing some 650,000 barrels per day.
The northwest portion of the block, close to Venezuela, has remained in force majeure as the Exxon group has been unable to complete exploration there.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Kemol King in Georgetown; additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago in Caracas and Daphne Psaledakis in WashingtonWriting by Julia Symmes Cobb and Marianna Parraga;Editing by Leslie Adler)
