Venezuela presented this Monday before the United Nations International Court of Justice, in The Hague, its arguments in defense of the ownership of the extensive territory of Essequibo that has been disputed for decades with Guyana. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez attended the hearing that the court had set for April 8 to deliver a boxed file with copies of a document in which they ratify her position in the dispute over the boundaries between both countries. However, Venezuela has already moved forward in other ways in incorporating the 160,000 hectares of jungle into the country's official maps and this Monday the Official Gazette published the law creating an administrative territory over the claimed area.
The conflict over Essequibo reached a new stage in 2018, when the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, took the controversy to court after decades of unsuccessful efforts. The court must determine the validity of the 1899 Arbitration Award, a decision considered rigged by Venezuela, but which Guyana, which has de facto occupied the territory, clings to to claim sovereignty over the area. Venezuela, for its part, is based on the postulates of the 1966 Geneva Agreement that establish a path of negotiation and dialogue to resolve the conflict, which in its extreme would lead to the ICJ.
The Maduro Government has gone to this instance despite not recognizing it and rejecting its decisions. Last December, in a referendum called by Nicolás Maduro, in a vote of which the official results are not yet known, the creation of a new State called Guayana Esequiba was approved, which has already materialized in the appointment of authorities and in a law. In the same consultation – in which Chavismo claims that 10 million Venezuelans participated, although in the streets, that day, there was no great mobilization – the jurisdiction of the TIJ in this conflict was also rejected. The political maneuver raised alarms about a regional conflict. Then, the Court warned the parties to refrain from taking measures that aggravated the collision. The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, intervened together with Celac (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) to calm tensions at a summit with the leaders of both countries held in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. This kind of truce was followed by military movements on the border and exchanges of communications.
The Essequibo crisis is a front that Venezuela maintains, especially internally. The approval of the Law in Defense of Essequibo has occurred in the race for the presidential elections on July 28, which Maduro wants to reach without major competition, after disqualifying his main opponent María Corina Machado, the opposition's standard bearer and chosen in a primary election. Beyond the creation of the Essequibo State, the incorporation of the territory to the maps, the norm establishes sanctions of political disqualification for those who have disagreed with the Government's position in this dispute.
Essequibo appears on the maps of the former Captaincy General of Venezuela since 1777, under Spanish rule, but those who have occupied the area, which represents two thirds of the current territory of Guyana, have been the British first and since the last century, with independence, the Guyanese. Those who live there speak English and have that country's ID. Before the territorial dispute reached The Hague, Venezuela, during the Government of Hugo Chávez, was lax in claims to retain the support of the Caricom countries, which have historically supported Guyana's position. Less than a decade ago, the discovery and exploitation of hydrocarbon reserves in the territorial waters of Essequibo has turned history upside down.
While the oil country par excellence, Venezuela, is plunged into crisis due to mismanagement and international sanctions against PDVSA, its main industry; Guyana has granted multimillion-dollar oil concessions to transnationals such as Exxon Mobile. With less than a million inhabitants, the country is seen as one with the greatest economic growth in the region for the coming years. Despite the speech against the TIJ, Venezuela has ensured, with the sending of the boxes of documents and the presentation this Monday, to continue participating in the process so as not to lose by forfeit in the trial that will define the validity of the 1899 Arbitration Award defended by Guayana and that could even delimit the new border.
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