Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali announced that the country is taking a defensive position against Venezuela, which has ordered its state-owned companies to explore and exploit oil and minerals in Guyana’s Essequibo region, a disputed territory which has been ground zero for a diplomatic crisis since early last month.

Guyana’s stance that the land was renounced after the Paris Award is being largely ignored and contested. The Paris Arbitral Award was part of an 1897 treaty that settled territorial disputes between Venezuela (represented by the U.S.) and Guyana (represented by the U.K.).

While Guyanese control of the Essequibo region has been constant for more than a century, Venezuela recently conducted a referendum claiming citizen support regarding Venezuelan authority over the region. Guyanese officials said in response that the country is preparing to defend itself and its borders in case of an invasion. 

In The Hague, the UN’s International Court of Justice ordered Venezuela to “refrain from taking any action which would modify the situation that currently prevails” in the Essequibo region.

Regardless, Venezuela claimed victory, with dictator Nicolas Maduro saying that Guyana and ExxonMobil, which recently found oil offshore in Essequibo, had been dealt “a historic beating”.

“Our first line of defense is diplomacy,” Guyanese President Ali said recently in conversation with CBS News, also mentioning that Guyana has reached out to leaders abroad, including in the U.S., India and Cuba, in hopes that “they can encourage Venezuela to do what is right, and ensure that they do not act in a reckless or adventurous manner that could disrupt the pace within this zone.”

“But we are also preparing for the worst case scenario … We are preparing with our allies, with our friends, to ensure that we are in a position to defend what is ours,” he said. Although Ali noted that Guyana will prepare its military assets in case of a Venezuelan invasion, he also reiterated, “We want this to be resolved in a peaceful manner.”

Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, echoed the president’s hope for peace in a statement, saying, “We would urge Venezuela and Guyana to continue to seek a peaceful resolution of their dispute. This is not something that will be settled by a referendum.”

Ali spoke a day after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said he would “immediately” grant operating licenses for exploration and exploitation in Essequibo and ordered the creation of local subsidiaries of Venezuelan public companies, including oil giant PDVSA and mining conglomerate Corporación Venezolana de Guayana.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but years of mismanagement and economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. against Maduro’s government have hurt PDVSA and subsidiaries.

Maduro also announced the creation of a Comprehensive Defense Operational Zone for the territory in dispute. It would be similar to special military commands that operate in certain regions of Venezuela.

Venezuela, with strong ties to the Russian Federation and China has now called for Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, to help to launch a war against Guyana to take over the disputed Essequibo region.

The goal of the current Venezuelan referendum aims to channel China’s aggression against Taiwan, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Turkey’s invasion of Afrin in Syria, recent conflicts in the Caucasus between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the Hamas attack on Israel in a way that expands these threats to South America. These new trends in international colonization seem to be all but literally barking at the United States’ door.

In June, Venezuela’s Minister of Petroleum Pedro Tellechea and his Iranian counterpart Javad Owji signed agreements during a meeting of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the Miraflores Palace, in Caracas, Venezuela. At this time, Iran’s hardline president declared that both countries have “a common enemy,” alluding to yours truly, the United States of America.

With a total social breakdown in the United States and an unmitigated disintegration between state and federal powers therein, the totality of these foreign pacts could emerge to become an unprecedented national security disaster for the United States and it’s allies abroad.

While the H.R. 7314: AXIS Act was not enacted into law, it received 99% bi-partisan support in the house. These geopolitical threats are real and require diplomacy and as well as tact. Otherwise, the potential of a new axis of countries beholden to the Russian Federation and its anti-West goals will become less nebulous and more austere.