Venezuela to hold military exercises as British warship heads to Guyana

A man sells phone cables in front of a mural of the Venezuelan map with the Essequibo territory included (Matias Delacroix/AP)

President Nicolas Maduro has ordered Venezuela’s armed forces to conduct defensive exercises in the Eastern Caribbean after the UK sent a warship towards Guyana’s territorial waters as the South American neighbours dispute a large border region.

In a nationally televised address on Thursday, Mr Maduro said 6,000 Venezuelan troops, including air and naval forces, will conduct joint operations off the nation’s eastern coast — near the border with Guyana.