Guyana Essequiba

The Guyana Esequiba, also known as the Essequibo Territory, The Essequibo or Essequibo Region, is a region of the Guyanese Shield from west of the Essequibo River to the landmark atop Mount Roraima in South America. It has an extension of 159,542 km² that the Cooperative Republic of Guyana administers as its own, but whose sovereignty is claimed by Venezuela based on the Geneva Agreement of February 17, 1966. Only the eastern part of the fluvial island of Anacoco in the Cuyuní river it is under the sovereignty of Venezuela but has been protested by Guyana; for Venezuela the entire island is outside the disputed area, Guyana does not understand it that way for the eastern half and, consequently, has argued that it was an act of annexation by the Bolivarian Army when it occupied it militarily in 1966.

Venezuela claims the territory as its own and, on its maps, the area usually appears obliquely hatched or with the legend Zone Claimed, subject to the Geneva Agreement of February 17, 1966. territory is claimed as an integral part of the jurisdiction of Bolívar and Delta Amacuro states.

Guyana owns the territory as sovereign, and on its maps the area appears as part of six regions of the country, encompassing the entirety of the Barima-Waini, Pomeroon-Supenaam and Cuyuni-Mazaruni regions; most of the Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo and Potaro-Siparuni regions; and the western part of the Essequibo Islands-West Demerara region (the last three have sectors on both sides of the main channel of the Essequibo River).

Background

Guyana, officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, established the inclusion of the Essequibo Territory within its limits in the 1980 Constitution, amended in 1996, which holds that:

"The territory of the State covers areas that immediately before the beginning of this Constitution were compromised in the area of Guyana along with other areas that could be declared part of the territory of the State by Law of Parliament."

These areas are those that made up the colony of British Guiana, before its independence, for which Great Britain recognized the Essequibo River as its western limit, politically mapped in its favor in 1938.

Official map of the United States of Venezuela by L. Robelin of 1890, which shows the historic Venezuelan claim of the region as Yuruari Territory and Delta Territory

Map of 1896 of the former British Guiana and the various lines of traced limits, which show the highest British aspirations and the Esquibo River that Venezuela considers to be its border; the greyish area is the only territory not claimed by Venezuela, while a part of the eastern sector (Pira) was ceded by the United Kingdom to Brazil.

For its part, Venezuela includes the territory within its domains since its first constitution of 1811, whose last reform was given in 1999, declaring in article 10 that:

"The territory and other geographical spaces of the Republic are those that corresponded to the Capitanía General de Venezuela before the political transformation begun on 19 April 1810, with the modifications resulting from treaties and non-violent arbitral awards of invalidity."

The Captaincy General of Venezuela, created by Carlos III in 1777, included the territories of the former province of Guayana, which occupied the same Essequiba region. The fight against Spain to penetrate the Caribbean and the north of the continent by the Dutch was tenacious in the 17th and 18th centuries. However, the 1791 Extradition Treaty between Spain and the Netherlands recognized the "Orinoco colony" as part of the Hispanic territory that bordered on the Essequibo.

After having appealed to the United States government, it proposed arbitration between the parties in conflict. In 1899 a court was formed in Paris whose formal decision is known as the Arbitral Award of Paris. The ruling concluded with the cession of the territory west of the Essequibo River to the United Kingdom. However, since Venezuela was not directly represented, since the two representatives of Venezuela were appointed by the United States, not representing the Venezuelan State, the latter declared the judgment null and void, an attitude that it maintained decades later, also alleging important defects that invalidate the arbitral decision.

On November 12, 1962, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, Dr. Marcos Falcón Briceño, made a presentation at the Special Policy Commission of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), to denounce the Award Arbitration alleging compromise and nullity defects justifying a dispossession.

Subsequently, Venezuela and the United Kingdom, with the presence of the local colonial government of British Guiana (soon to obtain independence), signed the Geneva Agreement on February 17, 1966, which stipulated the creation of a mixed commission to Look for a mechanism to end the conflict. On May 26 of that same year, British Guiana obtained independence, calling itself the Cooperative Republic of Guyana from then on. From that moment, the United Kingdom transfers to the new country the question of the territorial dispute over Guyana Esequiba, also subject to the Geneva Agreement. Venezuela recognizes the new country, expressly reserving its sovereign rights over Guayana Esequiba, west of the Esequibo River.

After 4 years of signing the agreement without reaching any results, it was decided to sign the Protocol of Port of Spain on June 18, 1970 in the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, in order to suspend the discussions for twelve years, expired in 1982. At that time, Venezuela decided not to renew this treaty and to continue with the Geneva Agreement through the Secretary General of the United Nations. Since then, the claim has been submitted to the United Nations General Secretariat under the conditions of the Geneva Agreement.

The name of the Essequibo river is derived from the surname of Juan de Esquivel, Diego Columbus's lieutenant during the third voyage to America in 1498. Various phonetic changes derived from the pronunciation by indigenous people and Europeans are responsible for the spelling change of the term.

History

Essequibo

Fort Kykoveral, the oldest known proof of European settlement in the Guayanas.

Monte Roraima, tepuy which marks the border between Venezuela, Brazil and the disputed area of Guayana Esquiba.

The first evidence of European settlement in Guyana Esequiba was Fort Kykoveral in 1616 founded by the Dutch. It was the center of the administration of the Essequibo colony of Dutch Guiana between 1616 and 1739.

Since 1777, with the creation of the Captaincy General of Venezuela by Carlos III, the Essequibo River was established as the eastern border between Spain and the Netherlands (Old Holland), from its source to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean. However, possession of this territory would only be de iure, since it would not be colonized by Spain.

In 1814 Great Britain came into possession of the Dutch colonial territories of Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo. In 1822 Venezuela was forced to protest the continuous invasions of English colonists in Venezuelan territory. The Venezuelan Minister in London, Dr. José Rafael Revenga, on the instructions of the Liberator Simón Bolívar, presented the official complaint to the British authorities in the following terms: "The settlers of Demerara and Berbice have usurped a large portion of land that according to the last treaties between Spain and the Netherlands belongs to us on the side of the Essequibo river. It is absolutely essential —the Venezuelan diplomat ends by saying— that said settlers either place themselves under the jurisdiction and obedience of our laws, or retire to their former possessions". Two years later, José Manuel Hurtado was appointed Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipotentiary Minister of Colombia to the United Kingdom, replacing Dr. Revenga, with the special mission of obtaining British recognition. In 1831 British Guiana was established by order of King William IV of the United Kingdom. From that moment on, the British government encouraged the advance and establishment of settlers in the lands located to the west of the Essequibo River, favored by depopulation and the precarious situation of Venezuela, which was then beginning its institutional organization after a long war of independence. Another factor was the role of Great Britain as a world hegemonic power in the second half of the 19th century, which gave it international and even military support in its colonial expansion.

Modification of borders

Map of Gran Colombia (1819) which includes the region of El Estequibo.

In 1835, Robert Hermann Schomburgk drew a boundary line between Venezuela and British Guiana from the Moruca River to the Essequibo, covering 4,290 km². In 1839 he drew a second line called North-South that spanned the mouth of the Amacuro to Mount Roraima, which represented some 141,930 km² . The migration of the British colonists towards the territories located beyond the left bank of the Essequibo originated the first claim of Venezuela before the United Kingdom. Negotiations began in 1844 through the proposal made by the representative of Venezuela, Alejo Fortique, based on the territory of the Captaincy General of Venezuela and the principle contained in the uti possidetis iure, to recognize to the Essequibo River as a border line, alleging with documents the Venezuelan jurisdiction in those lands that had formed part of the former Province of Guayana. The British government proposed that the border line begin at the mouth of the Moroco river and continue along the Barima and Aunama rivers. This implied a border to the west of the Essequibo, and was not accepted by the Venezuelan government. Daniel Florencio O'Leary responded to Venezuela's protests, arguing that the Schomburgk Line was provisional, and that it was still subject to review by the parties.

On November 22, 1861, representatives of the Caracas oligarchy such as Nicomedes Zuloaga, Pedro Gual, Manuel Felipe Tovar, Juan José Mendoza, Francisco La Madrid, Federico Núñez Aguiar and others, constituted a commission in order to request the intervention of England to put order among the rebellious country in exchange for handing over Guayana Esequiba to which General Páez firmly opposed. The conspirators have to go into exile to the Antilles.

The greatest British expansion occurred in 1888 when 203,310 km² were awarded. The English always tried to penetrate Venezuelan territory, even as far as the Orinoco River.

Paris Arbitration Award of 1899

View of the Kaieteur Falls, located in the Potaro-Siparuni Region in the center of Guayana Esaquiba.

On February 2, 1897, Venezuela and the United Kingdom signed the Arbitration Treaty of Washington D.C. by which they agreed to resolve the border problem through international arbitration. In 1899, the Arbitration Court of Paris was formed "ad hoc", which issued a ruling in favor of the United Kingdom.

The Arbitration Tribunal, made up of five members, should have been made up of two representatives from Venezuela, two representatives from the United Kingdom and a fifth member as a neutral party. However, Venezuela —at the request of the United Kingdom— had to accept that its representation would remain in the hands of the United States; the congress of this country elected the American jurists Melville Weston Fuller, Severo Mallet Prevost and Davis Josianh Brewer. The United Kingdom was represented by the lawyers Charles Baron Russell and Sir Richard Henn-Collins. The fifth member, who would act as an impartial party, was appointed by the four previous members, and the Russian, Fyodor Martens, professor at the British universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh and permanent member of the Council of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire, was elected.

On October 3, 1899, the court, by unanimous decision, ruled in favor of the United Kingdom after six continuous days of sessions, within the period of two months provided by the Treaty. The ruling only favored Venezuela in keeping the mouths of the Orinoco River and a portion of territory adjacent to it, while the United Kingdom would take a large portion west of the 1,000-kilometre Essequibo River to the Venamo and Cuyuní rivers.

On October 4, José María Rojas, the only Venezuelan lawyer who is a member of the defense of Venezuela, protests the decision along with four other American lawyers; On October 7, Venezuelan President Ignacio Andrade protests. However, Venezuela only protests the final result of the arbitration without denouncing it (which it makes effective a long time later, barely in 1962) since it feared losing the mouths of the Orinoco river (the highest British aspiration) and more territory, in the event of a possible armed conflict., if it did not accept the lines that had been resolved in the Award. Venezuela at that time was suffering a political and social crisis and its military strength was notoriously inferior to that of the United Kingdom, the leading colonial world power at the time.

Subsequently, a Mixed British-Venezuelan Border Commission was formed between 1900 and 1905 for the definitive demarcation of the limits between Venezuela and the colony of British Guiana and was signed in September 1907. The Venezuelan dictator Juan Vicente Gómez signed in 1932 the triple confluence point on Mount Roraima as the border between Brazil, British Guiana and Venezuela.

Nevertheless, after the death in 1948 of Mallet Prevost, one of the American defense lawyers for Venezuela, his legal representative released a document that revealed the secret negotiation that led to the deprivation sentence. With this discovery, the Foreign Minister of Venezuela Marcos Falcón Briceño went to the highest international instance of the UN in 1962 and denounced before the world that he considered null and void the decision of the Arbitral Award of Paris of October 3, 1899. The demand was admitted. and Venezuelan containment was recognized at the international level, which led to the signing of the Geneva Agreement of February 17, 1966 between Venezuela, the United Kingdom and its colony of British Guiana (present-day Guyana), in which the last two (metropolis and British colony) recognize Venezuela's territorial claim.

The Geneva Agreement is currently in force, in which the current governments of Guyana and Venezuela have agreed to use the figure of the good officiant to mediate between the two governments and find a satisfactory solution for the parties. Subsequently, the Jamaican Norman Girvan was chosen as mediator, who was accepted by the UN, however he died on April 9, 2014 without there currently being a good officiant figure between the two countries.

Question of Pirara of 1904

The 1904 Arbitration divided the territory of Pirara between Brazil and the British Guiana; the part assigned to this is claimed by Venezuela as part of the Guayana Esaquiba.

The Question of Pirara is the name of a 33,200 km² territorial dispute located in what is now part of the Brazilian state of Roraima and part of southwestern Guyana in the Potaro-Siparuni and Alto Takutu-Alto Essequibo regions (or Guayana Esequiba according to the Venezuelan point of view).

After the 1899 Arbitration Award that granted most of the Essequiba territory to British Guiana, the United Kingdom proposed a new award but this time to delimit its border with Brazil, in the territory of Essequiba Guiana later claimed by Venezuela.

The United Kingdom agreed to enter arbitration, by an impartial government, for which the Italian government was chosen. The lawyer Joaquim Nabuco was the defender of Brazilian interests before the court of Víctor Manuel III, in charge of the final decision. Nabuco defended Brazil with the argument of Lusophone supremacy in the region that he presented in eighteen volumes of evidentiary material compiled by Nabuco.

In 1904 the decision was made by the Italian king: 19,630 km² would be handed over to England (they became territories of Guyana, today claimed by Venezuela as part of Guayana Esequiba), and 13,570 km² were assigned to Brazil, definitively establishing the limit of the two countries in the region.

Renewal of the conflict

In 1962 Venezuela for the first time and officially claimed as its own in the United Nations Organization the territory located to the west of the Essequibo River, alleging invalidity and what is known in international law as contrary acts to good faith by the British government, in addition to an alleged compromise by some of the members of the Paris Award. The Venezuelan government exposed ten points to the London government on November 12, 1962 on which they based their claim:

British map published in London in 1840 showing the Schomburgk Line in red and Venezuelan claims in green.

• Excess of power (ultra petita), for decreting freedom of navigation on the Amacuro and Barima rivers, which according to International Law invalidates any arbitral award.
• Presentation of adulterated maps, according to Venezuela, by Britain in the arbitral tribunal.
• Absence of Motivation in the Arbitral Decision.
• The Court granted 17.604 km2 to Britain recognized as Venezuelans by the British government itself.
• The border line was allegedly imposed on judges by the British government.
• The President of the arbitral tribunal coerced the judges to accept the British demarcation.
• This demarcation was a "component," as was described by some British officials, according to Venezuela.
• Venezuela was deceived and the United Kingdom acted contrary to the good faith of international law.
• Venezuela was informed after the Arbitral Award made decisions.
• Member States of the arbitral tribunal.

For the British the Venezuelan argument was untenable because:

• All those who participated in the arbitral award had already died.
• Venezuela had accepted the arbitral award as "a full, done, right and conclusive settlement."
• The study of the documents revealed, according to the British, that Venezuela had no valid reason.
• Venezuela did not even try to prove its reasons for invalidating the Arbitral Award.

On February 2, 1965, the Venezuelan State officially published for the first time the Political Map of the Republic of Venezuela, at a Scale: 1:4,000,000, with the territories to the west of the Essequibo River known as Guayana Esequiba, Zona in Claim, Essequibo Territory as an unequivocal sign of its claim, recovery, vindication, unification, integration or annexation to the national territory from which it was sectioned by the Award of Paris according to the judgment of October 3, 1899.

1966 Geneva Agreement

The Geneva Agreement was signed between Venezuela and the United Kingdom (representing its then British Guiana colony) in Geneva (Switzerland) on February 17, 1966. It is a transitory agreement to reach a definitive solution to the border dispute, many define it as "an agreement to reach an agreement" and although in the Venezuelan interpretation it invalidates the arbitration award of 1899, the status quo derived from it is maintained. Therefore, the claimed area is under the authority of the Guyanese government until something different is resolved under the treaty. The first article of the document recognizes the contention of Venezuela to consider null and void the decision of the court that defined its border with British Guiana. The United Kingdom, by signing the document, recognizes the claim and the disagreement of Venezuela, thus agreeing to find a practical, peaceful and satisfactory solution for the parties.

When Great Britain decided to grant independence to British Guiana, within the Commonwealth, on May 26, 1966, naming it Guyana, it would be a State party, as established in article 7 of the Geneva Agreement. For this reason, Guyana ratified the Geneva Agreement on the day of its independence, thus recognizing the Venezuelan claim to the territory on the western bank of the Essequibo River.

1969 Rupununi Rebellion

On January 2, 1969, a separatist movement took place in Lethem in the south of Guayana Esequiba, in the sector then called the Rupununi District (in the current region of Alto Takutu-Alto Essequibo) that was contained 3 days later by the Guyana Defense Forces, with which it was intended to create a Interim Committee of the Government of Rupununi. The rebels led by Valerie Hart, the self-appointed "President of the Essequibo Free State", mostly Amerindian inhabitants of the area, requested help from Venezuela invoking their "Venezuelan nationality", but the Government of Venezuela headed by Rafael Caldera refrained from supporting the movement.

However, the Guyanese government accused the Venezuelan government of encouraging the separatist movement. The repression of the insurgents left between 70 and 100 dead, some of the inhabitants of the region fled to Venezuela, being located in the south of the Bolívar State. At least 120 refugees were granted Venezuelan nationality.

1970 Port of Spain Protocol

Four years after the signing of the Geneva Agreement of 1966 without reaching any result, Venezuela, Guyana and the United Kingdom sign in the capital of Trinidad and Tobago the Protocol of Port of Spain of June 18, 1970, in order to suspend discussions for twelve years. On June 22, 1970, the government of Rafael Caldera sent to the Venezuelan Congress the draft Law Approving the Protocol of Port of Spain accompanied by its explanatory statement. The Foreign Policy Commission of the Venezuelan Senate, in charge of analyzing that Protocol to the Geneva Agreement of 1966, rejected it; however, an arrangement between the main political forces in Congress, Copei and AD led to the Port of Spain Protocol Bill being shelved, without discussion or approval.

Alfredo Peña's interview with parliamentarian Jaime Lusinchi.

The rejection of the Protocol, due to lack of consultation, was also expressed by the minority parties of the Congress, the URD, the PCV, the political bureau of the FDP and the National Command of the MEP. Different sectors of national life agreed in qualifying the signing of the Protocol of Port of Spain as "a betrayal of the homeland".

The legislative disapproval of the text of the Protocol of Port of Spain, while Guyana was ratifying and registering it with the UN Secretariat, meant that, as a multilateral treaty, it was a constitutionally non-existent instrument in Venezuelan law. Venezuela failed to comply with the procedure provided for in the 1966 Geneva Agreement that was activated after the failure of the Mixed Commission (1966-1970).

"Venezuela will not extend the Protocol of Puerto España", El Universal April 5, 1981.

In April 1981 and during the official visit of the Guyanese president Forbes Burnham, the government of Luis Herrera Campíns decided, symbolically, not to renew that document without legislative approval and to continue with the procedure established in the Geneva Agreement of 1966 through of the efforts of the Secretary of the United Nations.

Trading since 1983

In 1983, Venezuela proposed direct negotiation with Guyana, but Guyana did not accept it and proposed three alternatives (UN General Assembly, Security Council or International Court of Justice) that Venezuela rejected. At the initiative of Venezuela in 1983, the border conflict was carried out under the auspices of the Secretary General of the United Nations, attached to article 33 of the Charter of the United Nations regarding the means of peaceful solutions. In 1987 Guyana and Venezuela decided to accept the Good Offices method that began to work in 1989.

Text in italics=== National Constitution of Venezuela of 1999 === The Constitution approved by popular referendum in 1999 in Title II of the geographical space and political division, Chapter II of the territory and other geographical spaces establishes in its Article 10: The territory and other geographical spaces of the Republic are those that corresponded to the Captaincy General of Venezuela before the political transformation that began on April 19, 1810, with the modifications resulting from the treaties and arbitral awards not invalidated.

During the government of Hugo Chávez, the relationship between Venezuela and Guyana was flexible. At first, the agenda of reclaiming the area continued, but from 2004 the Chavista government allowed the infrastructure and development operations of the Georgetown government, and it was even claimed that the 1962 claim was "orchestrated from Washington to put pressure on the leftist government of Guyana". However, the Caracas government made some gestures to remember the cause, for example, On March 9, 2006, the Venezuelan Flag was modified to recover the eighth star to "remember the contribution of Guyana to the cause of independence of Venezuela".

Recent disputes and the end of UN mediation

On November 15, 2007, a border incident occurred when the Guyanese government of Bharrat Jagdeo sued Venezuela for the incursion of forty Venezuelan soldiers who allegedly entered disputed territorial waters to blow up two dredgers in the Cuyuní River. Venezuela argued initially that the operation was intended to combat illegal mining and that the event had occurred to the west of the area under claim, however, after an investigation was carried out, the Venezuelan vice foreign minister traveled to Guyana and, according to the Guyanese foreign minister, this apologized for the incident: "The Venezuelan Vice Foreign Minister expressed sincere regret and assured that this act had no political motivations on the part of the Venezuelan government."

Guyanese chief of staff Gary Best acknowledged that the Guyana Defense Forces do not have the ability to prevent Venezuelan military personnel from entering the country, but warned that "if the Venezuelans open fire first, the FDG will respond."

In 2011, Guyana decided to make modifications to its continental maritime platform for oil exploitation, affecting the territorial sea of Venezuela, without prior notice from Guyana to the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry.^{[citation required]}

In June 2012, Guyana handed over the Roraima block to the transnational company Anadarko for oil exploration, keeping the location of the concession secret, which had been paralyzed after a protest by Venezuela between 1999 and 2000. In 2013 the Venezuelan government discovers the location in front of the Venezuelan Atlantic coast where Guyana applied a dividing line with Venezuela with an approximate inclination of 30 degrees while the Navy of the latter indicates that since 1996 Venezuela has assumed the inclination of this line in 70 degrees (Azimuth 070) and has exercised sovereignty over the area. This delimitation not only affected the Atlantic coast of Guayana Esequiba, but also that of the Delta Amacuro state of Venezuela.

During the term of Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan government has resumed the claims of a more active than his predecessor, even addressing the issue at the United Nations.

On October 11, 2013, Guyana accused the Venezuelan Navy of detaining the US oil tanker RV Teknik Perdana, contracted by the Guyanese government, and ordering it to proceed to Margarita Island, considering the act as "a serious threat to the peace” of the region. (PO-13) informed the authorities of his country that on October 10, 2013 in the afternoon, that ship was detected and intercepted in maritime space that corresponds to what they recognize as their exclusive economic zone., Venezuela asked Guyana for explanations for what it considers an invasion of Venezuelan jurisdictional waters. The conflict, along with those prior to the event, were set to be discussed in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, by both governments on October 17 of the same year., in the spirit of resolving any existing difference between the parties through diplomatic channels.

As a result, both governments ratified the Joint Declaration of September 30, 2013 in Port of Spain, thus acknowledging that the delimitation of maritime borders remains a pending issue and will require negotiations, for which it was agreed that a technical team meet within four months to exchange views on how that delimitation might proceed.

In December 2014, Guyanese Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett suggested that in 2015 the possibility of going to international organizations other than those agreed with Venezuela would be studied, such as the International Court of Justice, arguing that after several decades this had not been achieved reach an effective solution to the territorial conflict, this after the death of the UN negotiator or good officiant recognized by the parties, the Jamaican Norman Girvan. situation as an "unfriendly", "unilateral" and "surprising" act, while demanding a return to the mechanisms provided for in the 1966 Geneva Agreement with a bilateral and peaceful solution and reiterating its position of considering the Award "null and void". Arbitration of 1899".

Political map of Venezuela including maritime border of the Atlantic front according to Decree No. 1787

By March 2015, tension reappeared between Guyana and Venezuela, after Guyana announced that it would begin oil exploration in the waters of the Stabroek Block by the US company Exxon Mobil. The concern arose because the Block Stabroek, is located in disputed waters. In May of the same year, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry demanded that the aforementioned oil company stop its operations in waters that it considered to be in dispute, to which Exxon Mobil replied that it would not rule on the dispute., while a scheduled meeting between representatives of the company and the Guyanese government was cancelled. Shortly thereafter, on June 7, the Guyanese government summoned the Venezuelan ambassador to explain the "extension of maritime boundaries". due to the fact that the government of Venezuela established by decree 1787 of the Official Gazette 40,669 dated May 26, 2015 the expansion of its maritime claims against the Essequibo territory, legislation and actions that Guyana considers "illegal" for what it announced "a vigorous resistance" to Venezuela's claims to the disputed sea.

On June 10, the Venezuelan government rejected the position of the government of David Granger who assumed the presidency of Guyana in May 2015, and whom Venezuela accused of generating what it considers a "dangerous provocation" and the attempt to generate an "artificial crisis". On July 6, in a special session of the National Assembly of Venezuela, the approval of Decree No. 1859 was announced, which made improvements to Decree No. 1787, in which maritime defense zones are established. including the Essequibo area, the law creating the Presidential Commission for border affairs that covers all border issues was approved by Enabling, and Venezuela also announced the call for consultations of its ambassador in Guyana, a request to the UN to mediate in the conflict, the reduction in the size of its embassy, and the comprehensive review of relations with that country. This in response to the statements of Guyanese President Granger who described Venezuela as "a monkey on the back" and an "unbearable load" previously. On July 7, the Guyanese government condemned the call for consultations of the Venezuelan ambassador in Georgetown.

On July 14, the National Assembly of Venezuela approved by agreement of all the political parties with parliamentary representation and unanimously supported the defense of Guayana Esequiba and the measures taken by the Venezuelan state in this regard. The issue was also treaty at the Mercosur summit in Brazil where the Venezuelan and Guyanese governments exchanged criticism, and a summit was agreed for August in Asunción, Paraguay to deal with the dispute.

On July 24, President Nicolás Maduro, in the commemorative acts of the National Army Day, asserted in Catia La Mar that Venezuela has not ceded nor will it cede an iota of the Essequibo territory, reiterating that "we will make sure that the sun From the Venezuela of Bolívar, from the historical Venezuela, always leave through the Essequibo. For now and forever; I swear so soldiers of the Homeland!». On the other hand, when requesting permission to start the military parade, Rear Admiral Aníbal Brito Hernández pointed out: “The sun of Venezuela rises in the Essequibo. The Essequibo is Venezuela.

The national president reiterated that Guayana Esequiba has always been and will always be Venezuela's, at the time of announcing that «in the coming days, the Bolivarian Government will undertake diplomatic actions to continue the just claim of Venezuela over the Esequibo territory, and to reject the mishandling of the Geneva Agreement and the unjust accusations by the president of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, David Granger, against the Venezuelan nation with the pretense of generating conflicts”.

On December 23, 2016, the outgoing Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, announced that he could refer the issue of the border dispute between Guyana and Venezuela to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the end of 2017, if UN good offices do not yield results after one year.

The Venezuelan government rejected such a possibility, thanked the organization for its good offices and ratified its commitment to a solution negotiated by the two countries. The Guyana government, for its part, welcomed the decision of the UN Secretary General.

On January 30, 2018, the UN considered its good offices between Venezuela and Guyana exhausted. António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), proposed taking the dispute to the ICJ.

April 2023: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has unanimously rejected the theses of Caracas in its territorial dispute over the Essequibo territory, in the eastern part of the country.

Case before the International Court of Justice (since 2018)

The dispute reignited in 2015, when the US giant Exxon Mobil discovered oil fields off the coast of the Essequibo, which is equivalent to two-thirds of Guyana. On March 29, 2018, Guyana filed a request to resolve the territorial conflict before the International Court of Justice. On June 18, 2018, the representatives of Guyana would appear at the International Court of Justice. On June 18, Venezuela stated that it would not participate in the procedure requested by Guyana because for the national government the Court "manifestly lacks jurisdiction". states that "whenever either party fails to appear in court or fails to defend their case, the other party has the right to contact the court and have it decide in favor of their claim." Guyana will present its memory until November 19, 2018 and Venezuela, the counter-memorial response, until April 18, 2019. The oral hearings will be held from March 23 to 27, 2020.

On September 26, 2019, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guyana expressed its satisfaction with the notification of the ICJ, International Court of Justice in The Hague, that it will hold oral hearings on the border dispute between that country and Venezuela on September 23 to March 27, 2020. On June 30, 2020, the ICJ held its oral hearings virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which Venezuela did not attend because for the Venezuelan government, the ICJ did not have jurisdiction to take the case.

On December 18, the International Court of Justice issued a decision, with 12 votes in favor and 4 against, declaring that it had jurisdiction to analyze "the validity of the arbitral award of October 3, 1899 and the question on the definitive settlement of the land border". Consequently, on March 8, 2021, the ICJ established that Guyana should present its memory or list of arguments before March 8, 2022 and Venezuela, its answer or counter-memorial, one year later or until March 8, 2023.

On June 6, 2022, the Venezuelan government materialized a change in its litigation strategy before the ICJ through the notification of the appointment of its agents; Vice President Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez notified the ICJ of the appointment of Samuel Reinaldo Moncada Acosta as agent; and of Félix Plasencia González and Elsie Rosales García as the Venezuelan co-agents before the ICJ.

The following day, June 7, 2022, and following the procedures of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, the Venezuelan government filed preliminary objections to the Guyanese petition for admissibility of the case. Consequently, the ICJ suspended the analysis of the merits of the case and granted Guyana four months or until October 7, 2022 to respond to Venezuela's objections.

On November 22, 2022, on behalf of Guyana, Carl Greenigde requested that the objections filed by Venezuela on the Essequibo be dismissed and declared "inadmissible", considering that they were broad in rhetoric but did not touch the substance of the matter. There are opposing positions on the issue, since Guyana claims the arbitration of 1899 and Venezuela, the Geneva Agreement. Samuel Moncada, Venezuela's ambassador to the United Nations Organization, asked that Guyana's claim be declared "inadmissible" by reiterating that Georgetown cannot demand the validity of that award because, at the time that arbitration was carried out, that country did not exist but that it was part of the United Kingdom and London is the one who is called to respond on the case.

On April 6, 2023, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled against Venezuela in the hearing held for the dispute with Guyana over the Essequibo, rejecting the preliminary objection raised by Venezuela, with the vote of 14 judges against one stated the court's president, Judge Joan Donoghue. Now he will continue with the analysis of the merits of the case.

Territorial organization

Map of Guyana showing regions 1 (Barima-Waini), 2 (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), 7 (Pomeroon-Supenaam), 8 (Potaro-Siparuni), 10 (Alto Takutu-Alto Esaquibo) and the western area of 5 (West Esthern Essue-Stop Islands) in claim)

In Guyana

According to the administrative division of Guyana, Guayana Esequiba would encompass all of the regions of Barima-Waini, Pomeroon-Supenaam and Cuyuni-Mazaruni; most of the Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo and Potaro-Siparuni regions; and the western part of the Essequibo Islands-West Demerara region (the last three have sectors on both sides of the main channel of the Essequibo River). Each region is administered by a democratic regional council (Regional Democratic Council - RDC), which is headed by a chief or president (Chairman).

*(The data from regions 3, 8 and 9 include the sectors located east of the main channel of the river Esaquibo, which are not claimed by Venezuela.)

In Venezuela

Canton Upata (1840) of the Province of Guayana, today eastern part of the Bolivar State and north of the Guayana Estequiba.

Canton Piacoa (1840), today Delta Amacuro State and north of the Guayana Esquiba.

According to some interpretations of Venezuelan legislation, Guayana Esequiba is an integral part of the jurisdiction of the Bolívar and Delta Amacuro states, whose common limit runs along the top of the Serranía de Imataca.

The Bolívar state, in its constitution, establishes the following:

Article 15 The territory and other geographical spaces of the Bolivar State are those that historically corresponded to the Province of Guayana of the General Office of Venezuela, prior to the political transformation begun on 19 April 1810, then delimited according to the Territorial Political Law of the Republic of 28 April 1856, with the modifications that have resulted from the laws of the Republic, of the conventions and other legal acts validly celebrated according to the Constitution. In all the acts of the State, which describe or refer to its territory, the reservation that the Arbitral Award of Paris of 1899 is irrit and null, in accordance with the principles of law and justice that govern the international community, and contribute to affirming territorial integrity, shall be incorporated, even if it is not expressly stated. The Bolivar State will collaborate and support the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in achieving a satisfactory solution to the practical settlement of the territorial dispute, based on the Geneva Agreement of 17 February 1966.

For its part, the original territory of what is now the state of Delta Amacuro stretches from the Orinoco delta to the Essequibo river. The information website of the government of this state indicates the following about its territoriality:

At the time of the establishment of the Federal Territory Delta Amacuro, it had an area of 63,667 km2, currently having 40,200 km2. The difference between these two surfaces was lost by the Amacuro Delta on the occasion of the Arbitral Award of Paris signed on October 3, 1899, through which 23,467 km2 of its territory were taken from the English Guiana.

Historically in Venezuela, the central power (government and other agencies of the Venezuelan State) has been directly in charge of handling the case of Guayana Esequiba, leaving local governments and mayoralties very little participation and power of action. Special and differentiated treatment is given to the jurisdictions of these national states, which do not usually include their territorial portion within Guayana Esequiba on their maps, although the inclusion of the area under claim is mandatory on the country's national maps.. Perhaps it is this reality that has led some to mistakenly think that Guayana Esequiba is a new Venezuelan state or federal territory.

In 1999, when the new Magna Carta of Venezuela was decreed, it was enshrined as Venezuelan territory, in article 10 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela:

The territory and other geographical spaces of the Republic are those that corresponded to the General Office of Venezuela before the political transformation begun on 19 April 1810, with the modifications resulting from the treaties and non-violent arbitral awards.

In August 2015 some deputies of the National Assembly of Venezuela proposed the Creation of State number 25 (Essequibo State) uniting the territory of Guayana Esequiba (159,500 square kilometers) and the Sifontes Municipality (24,393 square kilometers), with capital in Tumeremo, the latter territory that is currently under the jurisdiction of the Bolívar state. The proposal was officially introduced before the secretariat of the National Assembly, but it was not approved.