1 of 4 The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, shortly after the referendum on Guyana Photo: Matias Delacroix / AP Photo The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, shortly after the referendum on Guyana Photo: Matias Delacroix / AP Photo
Venezuelans rejected in a referendum this Sunday (3) the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice over the country’s longstanding territorial dispute with neighboring Guyana and supported the creation of a new state in the Essequibo region. According to the local electoral authority, more than 95% of voters agreed to the five questions prepared by the government.
The court banned Venezuela from taking any action that could change the status quo in the region, but President Nicolás Maduro’s government went ahead with a fivequestion “consultative” referendum.
Essequibo Province, a hydrocarbonrich territory larger than Greece, is part of Guyana, although it has been claimed by Venezuela since 1841.
It is unclear how the Venezuelan authorities plan to implement the annexation of the territory.
Elvis Amoroso, President of the National Electoral Council (CNE), stated that 10,554,320 votes were cast in the referendum, not counting the votes cast during the twohour extension of voting.
It was “an obvious and overwhelming victory for Yes,” said Amoroso, a progovernment lawmaker and close confidant of Maduro.
Maduro celebrated the result: “This is a historic referendum that Venezuela has put together, and now it is time to take back what the liberators left us.”
2 of 4 The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, shortly after the referendum on Guyana Photo: Matias Delacroix / AP Photo The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, shortly after the referendum on Guyana Photo: Matias Delacroix / AP Photo
Guyanese President Mohamed Irfaan Ali said many Guyanese viewed the referendum with suspicion. He stated that “there is nothing to fear in the coming hours, days and months.”
He added that Guyana uses diplomacy as its “first line of defense” and continually works to ensure that its “borders remain intact.”
“I’m not going to go into Venezuela’s domestic politics or its policy formulation, but I want to warn Venezuela that this is an opportunity for them to demonstrate maturity, an opportunity for them to demonstrate responsibility,” Ali said.
Better understand the conflict between Venezuela and Guyana
Voting began at 6 a.m. local time (7 a.m. in Brasília) and lasted until 6 p.m. (7 p.m. in Brasília), but the country’s National Electoral Council (CNE) decided to extend the deadline to 8 p.m. local time (9 p.m., in Brasília).
20.7 million Venezuelans were asked to vote out of a population of almost 30 million.
Nicolás Maduro, President of Venezuela, encouraged Venezuelan voters to approve the 5question referendum (see below). Guyana sees the referendum as a first step towards annexing its territory.
“The first effect that Venezuela’s powerful and unified voice should have is to sit down with the President of Guyana and return to the Geneva Agreement,” Maduro said during the vote this Sunday, referring to the one from the United Kingdom and the Country signed treaty In 1966, Parliament recognized Venezuela’s claim and ordered Venezuelans and Guyanese to form a commission to resolve the issue.
The Essequibo territory has been disputed by Venezuela and Guyana for more than a century. It has been under Guyanese control since the late 19th century. The region makes up 70% of Guyana’s current territory and is home to 125,000 people.
In Venezuela the area is called Guayana Essequiba. It is a place with dense forest and in 2015, oil was discovered in the region. It is estimated that Guyana has reserves of 11 billion barrels, most of which are offshore, near Essequibo. Due to oil, Guyana is the fastest growing South American country in recent years.
Both Guyana and Venezuela claim rights to the territory based on international documents:
- A Guyana claims to be the owner of the territory, as there is a report drawn up in Paris in 1899 that established the current boundaries. At the time, Guyana was a territory of the United Kingdom.
- Already those Venezuela declares that the territory belongs to it because this is stipulated in an agreement signed with the United Kingdom itself in 1966, before Guyana’s independence, which annuls the arbitration award and creates the basis for a negotiated solution.
The Nicolás Maduro regime organized a referendum on relations between Venezuela and the Essequibo territory. The consultation scheduled for this Sunday (3) includes five questions.
- Do you reject the current limit?
- Do you support the 1966 Geneva Convention?
- Do you agree with Venezuela’s position of not recognizing the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (more on this topic below)?
- Do you disagree with Guyana using a maritime region over which there are no fixed borders?
- Are you okay with that? the creation of the state of Guyana Essequiba and with the creation of a care plan for the population of this territory, which includes the granting of Venezuelan citizenship, inclusion of this state to the map of Venezuelan territory?
“This referendum has already been approved because Venezuelans will not vote against it. The question is whether or not the consequence will be measures to annex Essequibo,” says Carmona, professor of geopolitics at Escola Superior de Guerra.
Oil in the region has heightened the dispute as Venezuela argues Guyana is selling blocks it doesn’t own.
Finally, there is the political situation in Venezuela. After years of crisis, the country is hoping for economic improvement through the lifting of sanctions. One of the measures that the United States has taken to lift sanctions is to hold clean presidential elections in 2024. There is a preelection climate in Venezuela, and this issue has been a national issue in the country for centuries, it unites all selftaught Opposition does not dare to speak out against the Essequibo issue.
“Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, would not jeopardize the economic recovery that could be achieved with the end of sanctions against the oil industry, because a military campaign will not only lead to a confrontation with Guyana, but most likely a confrontation “with other extraregional powers, which could lead to the return of sanctions and destroy the possibility of economic recovery,” says Carmona.
3 of 4 Map shows Guyana and the Essequibo region Photo: Vitoria Coelho/g1 Map shows Guyana and the Essequibo region Photo: Vitoria Coelho/g1
Guyana asked the International Court of Justice for help
The International Court of Justice ruled on Friday that Venezuela could not try to annex Essequibo and that this applied to the referendum.
Guyana had asked the court to take emergency measures to stop voting in Venezuela.
In April, the International Court of Justice declared that it had the legitimacy to rule on the dispute. This body is the highest court of the United Nations (UN) to settle disputes between states, but is unable to enforce its decisions.
The final decision on who owns Essequiba could still be years away.
The Venezuelan government said the decision constituted interference in an internal matter and violated the constitution. Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said that “nothing will prevent the referendum scheduled for December 3 from taking place.” She also said that despite her appearance in court, this does not mean that Venezuela recognizes the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice over the dispute.
The Brazilian government is following the situation with concern, said the Minister for Latin America and the Caribbean in Itamaraty, Ambassador Gisela Padovan. “We have been following closely and speaking at a very high level you will recall that Ambassador Celso Amorim traveled to Caracas to meet with the government and we are also in discussions with Guyana.”
Amorim traveled to Caracas a week ago at the request of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) after Brazil determined that the Venezuelan campaign to annex Essequibo had escalated too much, a source following the events told Portal.
The Brazilian government did not call for the cancellation of the Venezuelan referendum, but called on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to tone down the campaign and seek a peaceful solution. Lula also received a phone number from Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali, with whom he will also hold a bilateral meeting on Friday on the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai.
The prevailing view in the Brazilian government is that there will be no “disputes” in Venezuela, even though Maduro has threatened to invade Guyana’s territory on more than one occasion.
Last week, during a meeting of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) in Brasília, representatives of the two countries exchanged provocations and it took the intervention of other countries to prevent the discussion from escalating.
“Last week the two countries sat down… and I have to say there was energy, a little more elevated language on the part of Venezuela, but they sat at ACTO without any problems and cooperated without any problem on the Amazon issue,” the ambassador said .
The Brazilian government expects that “yes” to annexation will win the referendum, as it is one of the few issues that unites the government and opposition in Venezuela. However, it is unknown what Maduro intends to do with this outcome. General elections are scheduled to take place in Venezuela in 2024 and an action regarding Guyana could become an electoral weapon, a source said.
4 of 4 A man walks in front of a wall with a message claiming that the Essequibo region of Guyana is Venezuelan in Caracas on November 29, 2023. — Photo: Matias Delacroix/ AP Man walks in front of a wall with a message claiming that the Essequibo region of Guyana is Venezuelan the Guyanese region of Essequibo as a Venezuelan woman, in Caracas, November 29, 2023. — Photo: Matias Delacroix / AP