Venezuela insists on taking the border dispute with Guyana to a referendum, despite Georgetown’s rejection

2023-10-31 21:51:05

CARACAS (AP) — The Venezuelan government accused the Guyanese president, Irfaan Ali, on Tuesday of fueling the conflict over a border dispute that he has had for years with Venezuela and urged him to resume direct negotiations, outside the International Court of Justice. .

Venezuela and Guyana dispute the so-called Essequibo, a territory of regarding 159,500 square kilometers that the Venezuelans have claimed as theirs since 1897, since that region was under their jurisdiction during the Spanish colony.

In one of the latest maneuvers from Venezuela, the authority called a referendum to involve citizens in the claim it maintains with Guyana and ask them if they agree with the creation of the state of Guayana Esequiba as part of Venezuelan territory. On Monday, President Nicolás Maduro insisted on his weekly radio and television program that the consultation will be on December 3: “The consultative referendum is going because it is going.”

But the Guyana government has condemned the initiative, calling it an example of Venezuela’s alleged “expansionist ambitions.”

To which the Venezuelan vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, reacted on Tuesday by pointing out Guyana for seeking to have the International Court of Justice (ICJ) prevent the holding of the referendum promoted by the National Assembly, controlled by Maduro’s supporters.

“It is an outburst to ask Venezuela to forcibly repeal its constitutional order, which is not going to happen,” Rodríguez told the press at the government palace in Caracas. “Guyana only seeks to cover up what has been the dispossession,” added the vice president.

Since 2015, both countries have repeatedly faced friction as a result of oil exploration by firms such as ExxonMobil in part of the disputed area.

The Venezuelan government maintains that Guyana does not have jurisdiction to grant concessions in maritime areas that are still undelimited off the Essequibo.

It was not clear how the Venezuelan authorities intend to implement this idea of ​​exercising jurisdiction over that territory, if following the popular consultation they declare it part of Venezuela. The country is made up of 23 states and a capital district.

In 1966, just months before Guyana’s independence, London signed the so-called Geneva Agreement and recognized Venezuela’s claim, opening the possibility of finding a diplomatic and satisfactory settlement for the parties.

And Venezuela maintains its position of not recognizing the ICJ as a means of resolving the territorial dispute.

Maduro has repeatedly urged UN Secretary General António Guterres to renew his good offices to reactivate bilateral dialogue.

In 2016, the now former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reinforced the good offices process, which dated back to 1990, and warned then that, if there was no significant progress in the Essequibo case by the end of 2017, should be brought before the International Court.

In January 2018, Guterres finally referred the case to the ICJ, followed by Guyana formalizing the case. In April, the United Nations’ highest court issued a ruling once morest Venezuela and declared itself competent to pursue the case.

The Venezuelan government says that since 1840 Britain “made maps and mounted a stratagem to perpetrate the fraudulent arbitration” of an international tribunal in 1899 that drew the border between the two countries, mainly favoring the former British colonial power.

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