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Guyanese soldiers hurt in clash with Venezuelan gangsters

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An exchange of gunfire in the western border Cuyuni River on Monday shattered a few months of relative quiet after six Guyanese soldiers on a resupply mission were shot and injured in a clash with suspected Venezuelan gangsters.

Police and the Guyana Defense Force both reported that the Guyanese soldiers were in a small boat moving from one location to the other when they were confronted by heavily armed members of a gang known as the Venezuelan “syndicates.”

An exchange of gunfire broke out on the river, the authorities said, and when it was all over, six Guyanese soldiers were injured, including two critically. The ‘syndicatos’ are known to be a criminal gang, which have been terrorizing miners, locals and commercial operators on the river for months.

Soldiers from a multinational force perform assault maneuvers while participating in joint military exercises with troops from the United States Southern Command at Camp Stephenson in Timehri, Guyana, on July 26, 2023. According to the United States Southern Command, 20 countries, together with troops from the 137th Special Operations Wing, among other units, participate in the military exercises called “Tradewinds 23” that take place on July 26 and 27.Photo by KENO GEORGE/AFP via Getty Images

It is not clear if any of the gangsters were killed or injured. However, the GDF did confirm that its ranks did return fire, blaming the clash on “a group of armed men positioned on the Venezuelan bank of the Cuyuni River. The patrol immediately responded to the attack and engaged the assailants with return fire” the military said in a statement. “The force remains committed to protecting its borders and will take all necessary measures to address any threats to national security.”

The government’s reaction to Monday’s incident has been relatively muted, with President Irfaan Ali expressing “deep concern about the well-being of our soldiers who were injured in yesterday’s attack on a military patrol.”

Monday’s late afternoon armed clash also came in the midst of Venezuela’s efforts to incorporate the mineral and oil-rich western Essequibo Region as its own. The dispute over which nation owns the area continues before the World Court in The Netherlands. A decision on border lines is expected late next year or early 2027.

Venezuela has claimed that an 1890s international boundaries commission cheated it out of the Essequibo and has vowed to reclaim it at the expense of its English-speaking neighbor to the east.

As tensions came close to military conflict in late 2023, Caribbean leaders, the UN, Brazil, and other friendly nations hurriedly organized a one-day summit meeting with the heads of state of both countries in St. Vincent, where they had both agreed to do nothing to escalate or trigger conflict.