In fact, he wants more than half: for this reason he has organized an internal referendum, but it will not have much legal value
The Venezuelan government organized a referendum on December 3 to ask its citizens whether they should incorporate the region of another state into the national territory without the permission of that state. The region is Guayana Esequiba, which in turn is part of Guyana, a small state east of Venezuela: Guayana Esequiba is a disputed territory that Venezuela has claimed for about two centuries, but is currently governed from Guyana and the state of it unlikely that the situation will change soon.
For this reason, it is not clear what legal value this referendum could have, which was called by the Venezuelan government against the opinion of the Government of Guyana and is therefore unlikely to have any major impact. Even if the majority of Venezuelans agreed to the annexation of part of Guyana, it is not clear what Venezuela could do to honor the result: for this reason, the referendum is currently seen above all as a matter of domestic politics and a propaganda attempt at authoritarianism President Nicolás Maduro aims to boost his popularity ahead of next year’s elections.
The Esequiba Guayana or Esequibo Territory is an area slightly larger than Greece, rich in oil, and the subject of an old border dispute: it is internationally recognized as part of Guyana, but Venezuela claims it is part of its territory because it is some of it was at the time when much of the region was a Spanish colony. Venezuela has had territorial claims on Guayana Esequiba since the year of its independence, 1811, and the dispute has not yet been resolved.
The referendum is supported by the authoritarian government of Nicolás Maduro, which is publicizing it with a massive communication campaign consisting of videos, photo exhibitions and public meetings, in line with the efforts that Venezuela has been making for decades to encourage the participation of Guyana Esequiba support his territory. Guyana has appealed the referendum and asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ main judicial body, to intervene to block the referendum. However, the Venezuelan government has stated that it intends to continue and that it considers any intervention by the IGC as interference in its internal affairs.
Today, Guyana Esequiba is a Guyana-governed and administered territory, divided into six distinct administrative regions. It lies west of the Esequibo River, which Venezuela considers the legitimate border of its territory: in fact, with the Guayana Esquiba claim, Venezuela claims sovereignty over more than half of Guyana’s territory.
Geographically, Guayana Esequiba is almost entirely forested. The recent discovery of a number of offshore oil and gas deposits has provided a huge boost to Guyana’s economy, making Guyana one of the largest oil exporters in the world. According to many, Guayana Esequiba’s wealth plays a role in the claims of Venezuela, which has been mired in a severe economic crisis for years. The Venezuelan government’s interest in the area has received a new boost since 2015, the year in which one of the world’s largest oil reserves was discovered off the coast of the territory. The majority of foreign investment in Guyana is also concentrated in Guyana Esequiba, which has also begun investing heavily in tourism in recent years.
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The territorial dispute over Guayana Esequiba is an ancient one. The area belonged to Venezuela at the time of Spanish colonialism. In 1811, Venezuela gained independence from Spain and Guyana Esequiba became the subject of a dispute with the colonial powers then occupying Guyana: first the Netherlands and then the United Kingdom (which is why English is spoken in Guyana).
In 1899, an international arbitration tribunal found that Guiana Esequiba belonged to the United Kingdom, which integrated it into British Guiana. When Guyana gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966, Venezuelan claims began again and, despite quite complicated diplomatic events, remained effectively unresolved, although Guyana continued to control and administer the region. In 2018, Guyana petitioned the International Court of Justice to declare the current border legitimate and binding: the Court took up the case last April and a final decision could take several years.
Photo (Juan Carlos Hernandez/ZUMA/ ANSA)(Juan Carlos Hernandez/ZUMA/ ANSA)(Juan Carlos Hernandez/ZUMA/ ANSA)(Juan Carlos Hernandez/ZUMA/ ANSA)
The Venezuelan referendum on December 3 includes five questions. The first concerns the current border between Venezuela and Guayana Esequiba: voters are asked if they agree to “reject by all means, in accordance with the law, the fraudulently established border that aims to deprive us of our Guayana Esequiba.” . The referendum questions are obviously asked rhetorically: in a sense they already contain an answer and encourage people to vote for the incorporation of Guyana Esequiba into Venezuelan territory.
Questions include the possibility of making Guyana Esequiba a state of Venezuela (a federal republic), granting Venezuelan citizenship to the people living there, and resisting by all means possible Guyana’s “claim” to “unilaterally have a yet-to-be-demarcated sea.” . , illegal and in violation of international law”. There is also a request to withdraw jurisdiction over Guiana Esequiba territorial disputes from the International Court of Justice (the Court is the court to which Guyana appealed to block the referendum and which must decide the matter in the coming period ). Months).
Guyana views the referendum and the way it was designed as “a textbook example of annexation,” as Paul Reichler, a lawyer representing Guyana, told the International Court of Justice. However, there are strong doubts about the applicability of a possible positive result of the referendum: although the 1899 border was established when Guyana was still a British colony, today Guyana Esequiba is actually governed and administered by a sovereign state.
At least for now, the value and significance of the referendum appear to be tied primarily to internal Venezuelan politics. According to some analysts, Venezuelan politicians have long and regularly used the claims about Guyana Esequiba to build consensus and stoke nationalist sentiments.
Presidential elections will also take place in 2024: Maduro has been president for over ten years, a period in which the country’s social and economic situation has become disastrous, and he is now seeking a third term in office. Unlike the last elections in 2018, which were deemed illegitimate by the United Nations, this year’s elections will take place in the presence of external and independent observers, including the United Nations and the European Union. The referendum campaign for Guyana Esequiba effectively coincides with pro-Maduro rallies and speeches and is seen as part of the election campaign. Meanwhile, as in the past, Maduro is doing everything he can to hinder and weaken the opposition.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Maduro has defined the Guayana Esequiba referendum campaign as an “educational electoral campaign”: he has appeared on television several times and spoken about what he sees as the history of Guayana Esequiba. The campaign included photo exhibitions, videos, meetings and public debates with invited historians and lawyers. In all these cases, the campaign places great emphasis on patriotic narratives, on redressing the “injustice” of the separation of the two once united territories, and on the need to protect the “fate of Venezuela.”
The narrative depicting Guayana Esequiba as part of Venezuela also included schools, with geography textbooks in which this area is part of Venezuela and not Guyana, and thematic school plays.
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