2023-12-14 18:08:00
Essequibo is a territory in northeastern South America of almost 160,000 km2 with access to the Atlantic Ocean, and is located between the mouths of the Orinoco and Essequibo rivers.
The controversy between Venezuela and Guyana over the Essequibo has its origins in the late 19th century and both countries claim it as their own, although it is Guyana that has effective control.
Guyana maintains control of the territory thanks to the Paris Arbitration Award of 1899, in which international mediators granted the British, who then ruled the colony of Guyana, sovereignty over the Essequibo, which is an oil-rich area.
What is the wealth of Essequibo like and how did it contribute to the exponential growth of Guyana?
Venezuela claims, however, that it lost the territory in 1899 due to the award, which it has considered null and void since 1962 when it denounced alleged defects in the procedure to the UN.
In 1966, the Geneva Agreement was signed, in which the United Kingdom admitted the existence of a dispute over the territory of Essequibo. That same year, Guyana became independent, beginning a stage of direct negotiations with Venezuela.
However, since then no agreement has been reached in this dispute, which has seen an increase in tensions in recent weeks due to the referendum that Venezuela held in early December, in which around 95% of citizens said they were in favor. in accordance with creating a Venezuelan state in the Essequibo region, granting Venezuelan citizenship to its population and “incorporating that state into the map of Venezuelan territory.”
The Government of Guyana assures that, with this consultative referendum, Caracas seeks the “annexation” of Essequibo. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has also said that an annexation of Essequibo by Venezuela would be illegal.
Before the referendum, Guyana rejected it and asked the ICJ to issue an emergency order to stop the popular consultation. The ICJ ordered the Maduro Government to refrain from taking measures that aggravate the dispute over Essequibo; However, Venezuela once more ignored the jurisdiction of the ICJ to resolve the dispute.
The ICJ, which is the main judicial body of the UN, has been trying to mediate the dispute for several years.
In March 2018, Guyana appealed to the ICJ to confirm “the legal validity and binding effect” of the Paris Arbitration Award decision.
Months later, in June 2018, Venezuela submitted a letter to the ICJ stating that this body lacked the jurisdiction to rule on the matter and that it was therefore not going to participate in the proceedings. The ICJ then determined that the first thing to do was resolve the question of its jurisdiction, something it did in 2020, when it ruled that it had jurisdiction to evaluate the case.
And the tension remains there: Venezuela ignores the jurisdiction of the ICJ, rejects the Paris award and alleges that the only legal instrument it recognizes in the dispute is the Geneva Agreement, while Guyana says that, despite the meeting scheduled for This Thursday, the country’s land border will not be subject to discussion and will respect any ICJ ruling.
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