Venezuela | The International Court of Justice Rules in Favor of Guyana v. Venezuela on Territorial Dispute | Geneva Convention | Conflict between Venezuela and Guyana Abstract | guyana esequiba | Venezuela

the international justice Court It announced this Thursday that it has jurisdiction to adjudicate the dispute Venezuela evolves in The Hague with Guyana For 160,000 square kilometers of land located in West of the Essequibo River. It is a slap to Caracas, which has tried to deem this issue “unacceptable”.

The ICJ unanimously rejected the arguments of Venezuela, which gave various reasons in its written and oral arguments to “ask the court to rule and declare Guyana’s claims inadmissible”, while Guyana asked to “reject the preliminary objections” of Caracas and go to the merits of the case.

The main judicial body of the United Nations has also refused to United kingdom Obliges to participate in this case, against the consideration of Caracas, which London saw a necessary part in the validity of the decision of the arbitral tribunal of 1899, within the framework of the territorial dispute that both countries hold the area of ​​Essequibo.

The government of Guyana, a former British colony, has asked the International Court of Justice to focus on the validity of the arbitral award to resolve this dispute.

Venezuela hold that international justice Court He has no jurisdiction to consider the position of Guyana; But after the court decided to do so, it asked the court to rule that it could not hear the case because the UK was not a party to the said proceeding.

In addition, he urged the United Kingdom to “stand” for the “divestment” of the Essequibo region and asserted that the 1899 arbitration award, which Guyana seeks ratification, was adopted when “this country did not even exist as a Republic”, because it was a colony British at that time.

Dispute in The Hague

On November 17, Venezuela’s executive vice-president, Delcy Rodriguez, traveled to The Hague to defend Caracas in this dispute with Guyana and warned that her country is the “sole and indisputable historical heir” of the respective regions.

“The origin of these rights is the historical, legal and political consequence of the succession of the title borne by Spain and the birth of our republic. Venezuela respects and values ​​the International Court of Justice as the principal judicial body of the United Nations and continues to believe that this court has no jurisdiction in this case, but we will prove Guyana’s request inadmissible.”

Guyana’s representative, Carl Greenidge, lamented that Venezuela’s participation in this process “takes the form of late preliminary objections seeking to prevent or delay resolution” of Guyana’s claims.

“It is a long-standing dispute (…). It has cast a long, looming shadow over Guyana’s security and development throughout its existence as a sovereign nation, and it is a shadow rooted in Venezuela’s efforts to erase the long land border between our two countries and reclaim nearly three-quarters of Guyana’s territory “. Greenidge, who emphasized that the solution to the conflict is “existential” for his country.

What are the origins of the territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana?

in 2018, Guyanaa former British colony, sued v Caracas In the international justice Court To resolve the territorial dispute between the two countries over a region esquibo and last year he presented his arguments for the validation of the 1899 arbitral award.

Last June, the Venezuelan government submitted its initial objections to the International Court of Justice as a means of ensuring that the lawsuit would be filed “It was not accepted because it lacked the basic elements to establish due process.”

Venezuela The Essequibo District claims about 70% of Guyana’s territory, including offshore oil reserves, arguing that the 1899 agreement is null and void, because it “fraudulently affected 159,500 square kilometers of Guyana’s territory with Iquipa, as the Venezuelan government calls it.”

On the 17th of February Venezuela They endorse the validity of the Geneva Convention, 57, as the only legal framework they recognize for resolving the 1899 arbitration award, which Guyana used as an argument in litigation, arguing that it was a “fraud” that “facilitated the expropriation” of these lands by the United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom and Venezuela in 1966, just before Guyana’s independence, signed the Geneva Convention, which initially laid the groundwork for resolving the conflict, but negotiations dragged on for more than two decades, to no avail.