2024-03-23 03:01:00
The Venezuelan Parliament approved a law that designates Essequibo as a state of its country – as the provinces are called -, in the midst of the century-old claim to this oil-rich territory administered by Guyana, a country that this Friday denounced that declaration as a violation of their sovereignty.
The president of the Venezuelan Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, indicated that the so-called Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba will be sent to the Supreme Court of Justice to validate its constitutionality. “We comply with the people of Venezuela who came out en masse to say yes five times, on December 3, 2023,” Rodríguez, one of the main promoters of the text, celebrated after the vote.
The country’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, also spoke about it. “Venezuela celebrates standing and with its historical dignity intact the approval by the National Assembly of the Bill for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba,” she indicated. “Venezuelans will never renounce our legitimate rights over the territory of Guayana Esequiba and we expressed this in the consultative referendum on December 3. The Sun of Venezuela is born in Essequibo!” She remarked.
The law was drafted by President Nicolás Maduro after a referendum on December 3, in which 95 percent of citizens who went to vote approved the annexation of Essequibo. The approved text was not yet disclosed and contemplated the creation of the state of Guayana Esequiba, as well as politically disqualifying and declaring traitors those who favored the cause of Guyana. According to the proposal, the new state would be governed from the city of Tumeremo, in the neighboring Venezuelan state of Bolívar, while authorities are chosen.
Guyana’s criticism
Guyana condemned the approval of the Venezuelan law. Minister for Local Affairs, Robeson Benn, said he regretted that Venezuela ignored the Argyle Declaration, signed by the Guyanese president, Irfaan Ali, and Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, last December, so that the territorial dispute did not escalate into a bigger problem. . “This is a violation of the principles of good will that were adopted in Argyle and then in Brazil,” where there was a meeting at the level of foreign ministers in January, Benn said.
At the opening of the conference of the Regional Security System of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Benn reiterated that the Essequibo controversy will be resolved in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, something that Caracas rejects. “We hope that Guyana defends itself during this process, but we recognize the risks and we know of the challenges that exist in Venezuela. We are also concerned about the presence of other countries that are located on the western border with Venezuela,” Benn indicated in reference to Colombia. . According to the minister, these other countries still have remnants of armed groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, among others, involved in drug trafficking and human trafficking.
The CIA meddles
The Government of Venezuela denounced on Thursday an escalation of provocations due to the visit of the director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, to Guyana, where he met with the president of that country, Irfaan Ali. “The Director of the CIA, an agency that declares itself specialized in ‘lying, deceiving and stealing’, and which has a history of death and destruction throughout the world, visits Guyana,” said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil , through a message on the social network X.
“This is nothing more than an escalation in provocations against our country, interfering, together with the US Southern Command, in the territorial controversy over Guayana Esequiba,” he stated. “The deployment of US intelligence is a real threat, contrary to the spirit of the Argyle Declaration, and an example of the perverse tentacles of Exxon Mobil that dangerously insists on creating a dangerous situation in our zone of peace,” he added.
Last week, the Minister of Defense of Venezuela, Vladimir Padrino, assured that the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) will respond proportionally to any threat it detects in waters near Essequibo, the area of almost 160,000 square kilometers under dispute.
Long-standing conflict
The origin of the problems dates back to when Venezuela officially became independent from Spain in 1811. At that time, Essequibo was under its rule but, years later, the British took possession of some territories, which they expanded until they formed the so-called British Guiana. . Given Venezuela’s rejection, the dispute was resolved through international arbitration, which in 1899 stipulated with the so-called Paris Arbitration Award, that the territory remained under British rule.
Venezuela declared the ruling null and void decades later and signed the 1966 Geneva Agreement with the United Kingdom, which established a commission to resolve the controversy. That same year, after obtaining its independence from the United Kingdom, Guyana began to control the Essequibo.
The territorial waters of the Essequibo contain large reserves of oil and natural gas, most concentrated in the Stabroek block. Since the American company ExxonMobil discovered crude oil in that area in 2015, Guyana went from being one of the poorest countries in South America to the one with the highest economic growth in the world (57.8 percent in 2022). These reserves, which are estimated at about 11,000 million barrels of oil, encouraged, along with political issues, the tensions between Georgetown and Caracas over Essequibo to increase until reaching the current crisis.
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