ICJ asks Venezuela to ‘refrain’ from complicating dispute with Guyana with referendum

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) This Friday, he urged Caracas to “refrain” from taking “any action that modifies” the situation of the territory west of the Essequibo River that is the subject of dispute with Guyana, or that could “aggravate or prolong” this litigation before the court, in the face of the planned referendum. for Venezuela for this Sunday.

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In response to Guyana’s request for provisional measures after Venezuela announced the holding of the referendum, The ICJ urged Caracas to “refrain from taking any action that modifies the situation that currently prevails in the disputed territory, pending a final decision on the case” in this UN court..

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However, the ICJ did not directly ask Caracas to cancel the holding of that referendum scheduled for Sunday, but it did urge the government of Nicolás Maduro to “not aggravate the dispute between them” and recalled that its rulings “have binding effect and, therefore, Therefore, they create international legal obligations.”

Furthermore, it agreed in a unanimous ruling by all the judges that “both parties will refrain from taking any action that could aggravate or prolong the litigation before the court or make its resolution more difficult,” and believes that there is “a real and imminent risk” of that Caracas take other measures after the plebiscite.

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While reading the ruling, The ICJ considered that, “in light of the strong tension that currently characterizes the relations between the parties, the aforementioned circumstances present a serious risk of Venezuela acquiring and exercising control and administration.” of the territory of almost 160,000 square kilometers west of the Essequibo River in dispute in this case.

“The Court concludes that there is a risk of irreparable harm to the right claimed by Guyana in the present proceedings that the Court has considered plausible. The Court further considers that Venezuela expressed its willingness to take measures with respect to the disputed territory at any time after the referendum,” he noted.

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Caracas recognizes as the only legal instrument to resolve this controversy the Geneva Agreement, signed in 1966 with the United Kingdom (before Guyanese independence), and which establishes bases for a negotiated solution, but those negotiations lasted for more than two decades without results. and Guyana seeks a solution through the ICJ.

Guyana warned that The referendum “is designed to obtain an overwhelming popular mandate for the (Venezuelan) government to reject the jurisdiction of the Court and prevent a future ruling by the Court” and warned that Venezuela seeks to “annex and incorporate the Essequibo region of Guyana into its territory,” and “grant Venezuelan nationality to its population.”

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Venezuela claims the Essequibo region, about 70% of Guyana’s territory, including offshore oil reserves, arguing that The arbitration award of 1899 is null and void because it “fraudulently affected 159,500 square kilometers of the territory” of Guayana Esequiba, as the Venezuelan Government calls it..

In 2018, Guyana, a former British colony, filed a lawsuit against Caracas at the ICJ to resolve the territorial dispute between both States over the Essequibo region, and last April, the ICJ declared itself competent to rule on the case, which was in a blow to Caracas, since it had tried to have this case declared “inadmissible.”

EFE