The presidents of Venezuela and Guyana met this Thursday in St. Vincent and the Grenadines to agree not to threaten each other or use violence in the dispute over Essequibo, an oil and mineral-rich region that is now part of Guyana. No substantive solution was found, probably because there cannot be one. Nicolás Maduro claims this land for his country, while the supreme leader of this small nation, Irfaan Ali, assures that there is no possibility that the Venezuelan demands will be met, so the matter is at a standstill. The presidents met after two weeks of enormous tension in which the international community feared differences would lead to war.
The meeting took place in the presence of members of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Celac, representatives of the Brazilian government and UN observers. Part of Essequibo belonged to Venezuela in the 19th century, but Guyana, a British colony, expanded its borders in search of gold and bauxite mines until it absorbed the entire area. Venezuela complained unsuccessfully to international bodies: an arbitration award from 1899 ruled in favor of the British. Many Venezuelan historians claim that this verdict was tampered with because an explorer falsified the cartography. 124 years later, just the blink of an eye, the Chavista government has taken up the matter and seems ready to draw the final conclusions.
In the 11-point joint statement, Guyana shows its full confidence in the procedures of the United Nations International Court of Justice, which is resolving the border dispute. Venezuela, on the other hand, does not recognize its jurisdiction in this matter. Both states agree not to escalate the conflict and to avoid incidents at the border that could be viewed as an attack. If this were to happen, the actors sitting at the table this Thursday would mediate. There will be a joint commission of foreign ministers and technicians who will work together on a solution. And within three months the parties will meet again in Brazil.
Maduro landed in St. Vincent and the Grenadines to fight. “I come with a mandate from the Venezuelan people, with a word of dialogue, but with the aim of defending the rights of our people. “To seek effective and satisfactory solutions through the only possible means of dialogue, as prescribed in the Geneva Convention,” he said. The International Court of Justice did not ban the referendum that Maduro organized three weeks ago to confirm the desire of Venezuelans to claim the Essequibo (hence Maduro speaks of a “mandate of the people”), but warned him against the status to change the quo of the border. China, the United States and Brazil have also called on Maduro not to make hasty decisions.
Guyana's President Irfaan Ali shows his bracelet with a map of Guyana as he addresses the media after a meeting with his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro on December 14, 2023 in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Portal/Robertson S. HenryROBERTSON S HENRY (Portal)
For now, Maduro has presented to the public a new map of the country that includes the Essequibo, a vast jungle area twice the size of Portugal or five times the size of Belgium. Venezuelan nationalism celebrated this coup. In addition, the government passed a law declaring Essequibo a region of Venezuela and offering citizenship to its 125,000 residents. These couldn't be further culturally distant from Venezuela: they speak English and drive on the right, a legacy of the colony, and they have little contact with other countries in the region. Guyana lives in self-centeredness. The country, once one of the poorest in the region, is now striving to become one of the richest thanks to the enormous reserves of oil found in its waters by the American company ExxonMobil. Some of these discoveries took place outside the Essequibo territories, which has increased the sense of deception among Venezuelans.
Ali, the only Muslim president in the West, representative of the PPP, a social democratic party with an Indo-Guyanese majority in power since 2020, appeared inflexible: “Guyana is not the aggressor, Guyana is not seeking war, but Guyana reserves the right.” Right to work with all its partners to defend themselves.” He added that they met under these conditions to call on Venezuela to reduce tensions and restore its territory, which represents two-thirds of its country, in accordance with international law to respect. Emulating Maduro, he pulled out a piece of leather from his jacket with the entire map of Guyana, including Essequibo, painted on it.
An agreement in Geneva in 1966 decided that countries would exploit the possibilities of dialogue in the UN bodies to resolve their differences. This ultimately yielded no result and in 2018 Antonio Guterres decided to refer the case to the International Court of Justice at Guyana's request. Maduro wants to return to what was agreed in Geneva, rethink the lawsuit from the ground up and have arguments to achieve his goal of having the Venezuelan flag fly in Essequibo. For its part, Guyana is resisting. The Essequibo, this piece of land in discord.
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