2023-12-09 20:12:02
CARACAS (AP) — The Venezuelan government said Saturday that it agreed to sit down with its Guyanese counterpart to address the territorial dispute over Essequibo, following a proposal that arose in telephone conversations between President Nicolás Maduro and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and other high regional authorities.
According to a statement released by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, Maduro held talks with Lula da Silva, the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Pro Tempore President of the Community of Latin American Caribbean States (CELAC), Ralph Gonsalvez, and the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres.
In these conversations, Venezuela “received the proposal to hold a high-level meeting with the Cooperative Republic of Guyana,” indicated the statement, which did not specify the date for the meeting and did not mention whether the proposal had been accepted by Guyana.
Guterres, for his part, committed to promoting “a direct dialogue between the parties” and in favor of a solution to the conflict, the foreign ministry added.
He noted that Venezuela “assumes this call with approval and commitment,” in order to “maintain Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace, without interference from external actors.”
However, in the statement the government ratifies its position on “the unquestionable sovereign rights of Venezuela over Guyana Esequiba.”
This announcement does not stop the process in the Inter-American Court of Justice of the United Nations (ICJ), before which Guyana demanded in 2018 the recognition of an arbitration award from 1899 that determined English dominion over the disputed territory, when it was still a colony. British.
Venezuela ignores the jurisdiction of the ICJ and assures that the conflict must be resolved under the Geneva Agreement of 1966, when London admitted its claim, giving rise to a possible diplomatic and satisfactory agreement for the parties.
Hours before the statement was released, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, said on the social network
“We know how to mediate conflicts and maintain peace between our peoples,” wrote the leftist president and invited the countries of South America “to build a mediation team.”
“The greatest misfortune of South America is that a war broke out between its peoples,” Petro added.
Venezuela and Guyana claim sovereignty over Essequibo, a border territory of regarding 159,500 square kilometers (61,600 square miles) in northeastern South America.
The Venezuelans have assumed Essequibo as theirs since 1897 when it was under their jurisdiction during the Spanish crown.
The tension between the two countries, which was already on the rise, escalated following a referendum promoted by the Venezuelan government regarding its sovereignty in that area, following which Maduro ordered its exploration, which Guyana considered a “threat.”
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