Venezuela has called on CARICOM to broker talks with Guyana on settling the controversy over the Essequibo Region which the South American country claims belongs to it.
The Spanish-speaking country will be holding a referendum on December 3, and one of the questions being posed to citizens is whether they agree to make the Region a state of Venezuela and to grant current and future residents Venezuelan citizenship and identification cards.
Guyana has described the planned referendum as nothing less than the annexation of its territory, which it said is a blatant violation of the most fundamental rules of the UN Charter, the OAS Charter, and general international law.
CARICOM has sided with Guyana on the matter saying last week that the planned referendum amounts to taking over Guyanese territory which is a violation of international law.
Venezuela is now asking the 15-member grouping, of which Guyana is a member, to promote dialogue on the matter.
“The position of the Caribbean Community must be to promote and facilitate a direct dialogue between the parties, which will return Guyana to the path of respect for Public International Law, by promoting a peaceful and diplomatic route to address the territorial controversy,” the Venezuelan government said in reaction to CARICOM’s statement.
There has been no response from CARICOM concerning the request. Still, the President of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, has already made it clear that his country will not hold talks with Venezuela saying he would be relying on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to settle the matter.
As a matter of fact, earlier this week Guyana filed a request in the registry of the ICJ asking it to indicate the following provisional measures:
1. Venezuela shall not proceed with the Consultative Referendum planned for December 3, 2023 in its present form;
2. In particular, Venezuela shall not include the First, Third, or Fifth questions in the Consultative Referendum;
3. Nor shall Venezuela include within the ‘Consultative Referendum’ planned, or any other public referendum, any question infringing upon the legal issues to be determined by the Court in its Judgment on the Merits, including (but not limited to):
a. The legal validity and binding effect of the 1899 Award;
b. Sovereignty over the territory between the Essequibo River, and the boundary established by the 1899 Award and the 1905 Agreement; and the purported creation of the State of ‘Guayana Esequiba’ and any associated measures, including the granting of Venezuelan citizenship and national identity cards.
4. Venezuela shall not take any actions that are intended to prepare or allow the exercise of sovereignty or de facto control over any territory that was awarded to British Guiana in the 1899 Arbitral Award.
5. Venezuela shall refrain from any action that might aggravate or extend the dispute before the Court or make it more difficult to resolve.
However, Venezuela has already said it has no faith in the ICJ.
“Venezuela’s historical position for several decades has been that the International Court of Justice will never reach an equitable solution, as contemplated in the 1966 Geneva Agreement, which makes it the only valid instrument to achieve a solution,” the Venezuelan government said in a statement.
As the controversy continues to heat up, Guyana’s President, Ali traveled to the Guyanese county of Essequibo last Friday where he made it clear his country will not surrender a “square inch” of its territory saying that he was confident that the security forces would defend the country.
“The government and the opposition recently issued a joint statement in which we made it very clear for no one to make a single mistake. This Essequibo is ours, every square inch of it,” he said while addressing the opening of a business exposition.
He thanked CARICOM for issuing what he described as a “very strong statement” on the matter which said Venezuela’s only option is to participate in the ICJ’s process and more importantly respect the outcome.
“We respect international law and that is where this controversy raised by Venezuela must be settled. It must be no other place but in the realms of the International Court of Justice, as was assigned by the United Nations Secretary General,” Ali said.
It is becoming a common practice, all over the world, in which countries that are more militarily powerful wish to seize lands and mineral resources forcefully from their neighbours.
China has build some artificial islands in international waters (the South China Sea) with the intention of illegally owning that body of water. They have claimed also that Taiwan is a breakaway province that belongs to them.
Soulless Putin wants to annex most of Ukraine a illegally claim it as Russian territory. Israel is doing the same to Palestine. Now Venezuela wants to renew claims that the mineral rich region of Guyana is their territory. When will it stop.
The leaders of Russia, China, the Zionist State, Venezuela and other like minded pariah dictators should be ostracized by the rest of the world.
I’m anticipating and ready for MEME to come and deposit his fecal waste on this forum in defence of the two worst deplorables.
@Ibo
Meme is by a very long shot, more learned than you all are on those matters, that’s why you are attacking him/her in advance. Your coward!
It’s amazing all three countries are part of the South American Latin territory,and Caricom has to resolve their dispute
In my view it is not by accident the Venezuela is pushing this now. Fellow Chavista and lap dog Roosevelt skerrit is now chairman of caricom and it only makes sense on Venezuela part to push now. It was skerrit who was chastising fellow caricom countries to join ALBA. However the crook sat silent whole Venezuelans were suffering. Caricom has sat silent while democracy has been under attack and dictatorship grew under the influence of China and Venezuela. Caricom showed that it had no care about the governance and development of its citizens. Now that new found resource is causing issues because of the same greed and power hungry predators they have allowed to infect our region. no one is questioning the security risk and corruption with the CBI which directly affects Caricom. These are the same folks who said nothing of the RSS violations in Salisbury Dominica. let Venezuela annex the darn place cause it is no like it will benefit rest of Caricom. selfishness will be our death
The common law was inherited from Britain yet most areas of the world where there are land and territorial disputes they are in territories that the so called “Great Britain ” once occupied. The sun wouldn’t set on the great satan of Europe but ironically Britain now stands alone in Europe outside the European union. London Bridge has fallen down and it leaves behind turmoil around the world of its own creation from the Middle East to Africa and also in our neck of the woods. I’m waiting to see if under the guises of CARICOM Skerritt will join in this fight and territorial dispute between Guyana and Venezuela yet he refuses to take up the fight for Dominica’s right to Bird Island. He’s between a rock and a hard place. Your move, “I’m-the-people” leader. I’m watching you.
I have been hearing of this dispute from my primary school days…..This can be solved with dialogue, and not escalation. Incendiary exchanges worsen the matter. Does CARICOM have diplomats of high repute or stature??? You all diplomats need to broker a rapprochement between the two sides, and keep our region a zone of peace! Venezuela is clearly the bully here, but this can be amicably settled with dialogue!!
What did I say? Didn’t I say that Maduro is waiting? But he’s not going to wait indefinitely. Maduro knows how weak CARICOM has forever been; and weaker still with mister “Bigshort” at the helm. Maduro is not so stupid as he looks. Some folks only “look” smart but they pause 100 times in a short twelve word sentence. Come on CARICOM, let’s see what you’ve got. 😂😂😂