GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana's government on Friday said it has taken note of the “unfortunate reaction” of the Venezuelan government to the order issued on Thursday by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that called on the South American country to refrain from conducting, or preparing to conduct elections, in Guyana’s Essequibo region.
Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation: Minister, Hugh Todd (File Photo)On Friday, Caracas in a statement said “nothing in international law allows the International Court of Justice to interfere in matters that are the exclusive domain of Venezuelan domestic law, nor to seek to prohibit a sovereign act”.
The Nicolas Maduro government said the Essequibo “is an inalienable part of the Venezuelan territory and a legacy of our liberators.
“Its defense is a historical, constitutional, and a moral mandate that unites the entire Bolivarian Homeland. No international pressure, judicial blackmail, or foreign tribunal will make us back down from this conviction.”
The ICJ, which is hearing the decades old border dispute between the two countries, Thursday, unanimously reaffirmed provisional measures granted in December 2023 as part of the substantive case before the ICJ regarding the Arbitral Award of October 03, 1899.
On Thursday, the Court said, “Pending a final decision in the case, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela shall refrain from conducting elections, or preparing to conduct elections, in the territory in dispute, which the Cooperative Republic of Guyana currently administers and over which it exercises control.”
Venezuela had announced that it intends to hold elections in Guyana’s Essequibo on May 25 for a governor and other officials to administer the Essequibo, an oil-rich region that makes up about two-thirds of Guyana and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. It is also located close to massive offshore oil deposits, with current production averaging some 650,000 barrels per day.
In its latest statement, Georgetown said it “expects that the Government of Venezuela will act responsibly in complying with the Courts Orders of both 1 December 2023 and 1 May 2025 which are legally binding on both States, and in so complying, fully respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Guyana.
“The Government of Guyana further wishes to remind the Government of Venezuela that it has no intention of entering into bilateral negotiations with Venezuela regarding Venezuela’s claim of nullity of the 1899 Arbitral Award and by extension, its claim to almost two thirds of Guyana’s territory.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said this matter is pending before the ICJ by decision of the United Nations Secretary General, in accordance with the 1966 Geneva Agreement on the settlement of the controversy, an Agreement to which both Guyana and Venezuela are parties.
“The Court’s Judgment will be definitive, final and binding on Guyana and Venezuela. The Government of Guyana urges the Government of Venezuela to do more than pay lip service to the Geneva Agreement, and to actually comply with its provisions, including but not limited to Article IV(2). Essequibo is Guyana’s,” the ministry added.
In 2023, Caracas claimed that more than half of eligible Venezuelan voters had taken part in a referendum that yielded overwhelming support for laying claim to the Essequibo.
The referendum came after the ICJ warned Caracas against “annexation” of the Essequibo, and in January, the Guyana government expressed “grave concern” over what it claimed to have been “recent actions and statements” by the Venezuela government that constitute ”clear violations” of the Argyle Agreement and the binding order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), both of which came into effect in December 2023.
Georgetown recalled that the Argyle Agreement, signed in St Vincent and the Grenadines in December 2023 in the presence of regional and international interlocutors, unequivocally commits Guyana and Venezuela to refrain from escalating any conflict or disagreement arising from the territorial controversy between the two States.
It said that this includes refraining from actions that could aggravate tensions or alter the current situation in the disputed territory, pending resolution in accordance with international law.
