Guyana warns against actions by Venezuela

Oct 24, 2023 News

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…says situation can lead to violence

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Government on Monday deplored the move by Venezuela to seek a referendum to annex the Essequibo as it continues to further its unlawful claims to the mineral-rich region of this country.

Venezuela media reported on Monday that the country’s electoral commission will ask its citizens to answer five questions at a referendum billed for December 3, 2023 as part of the Bolivarian Republic’s claims to the Essequibo.

The five questions are:

1. Do you agree to reject by all means in accordance with the law the line fraudulently imposed by the Paris Arbitration Award of 1899 that seeks to deprive us of our Guayana Esequiba?
2. Do you support the 1966 Geneva Agreement as the only valid legal instrument to reach a practical and satisfactory solution for Venezuela and Guyana regarding the controversy over the territory of Guayana Esequiba?
3. Do you agree with Venezuela’s historical position of not recognizing the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice to resolve the territorial controversy over Guayana Esequiba?
4. Do you agree to oppose by all means in accordance with the law Guyana’s claim to unilaterally dispose of a sea pending delimitation illegally and in violation of international law?
5. Do you agree with the creation of the Guayana Esequiba state and the development of an accelerated plan for the comprehensive care of the current and future population of that territory that includes, among others, the granting of citizenship and Venezuelan identity card in accordance with the Geneva Agreement and international law, consequently incorporating said state on the map of Venezuelan territory?

Meanwhile, in a statement Monday night, the Government of Guyana said it has taken careful note of the issuance by the National Electoral Council of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela of five questions to be asked in the national referendum scheduled for December 3, 2023.

The government said among other questions, all of which are intended to further Venezuela’s unlawful and unfounded claim to more than two-thirds of Guyana’s national territory, question five is the most pernicious. “It brazenly seeks the approval of the Venezuelan people of the creation of a new Venezuelan State consisting of Guyana’s Essequibo Region, which would be incorporated into the national territory of Venezuela, and the granting of Venezuelan citizenship to the population.”

This, the Guyana government said amounts to nothing less than the annexation of Guyana’s territory, in blatant violation of the most fundamental rules of the UN Charter, the OAS Charter and general international law. Such a seizure of Guyana’s territory would constitute the international crime of aggression.

“The Government of Guyana categorically rejects any attempt to undermine the territorial integrity of the sovereign State of Guyana. The Government finds abhorrent that the Essequibo region which forms part of the territory of Guyana in accordance with the 1899 Arbitral Award that demarcated the boundaries of the States of Venezuela and then British Guiana, should be ‘created’ into a State within Venezuela,” the statement read.  Further, the Government rejects the internationally unlawful act to put forward the ‘granting of citizenship and Venezuelan identity cards in accordance with the Geneva Agreement and international law’. “It is by way of the Geneva Agreement and the principles of international law that the question of the validity of the Arbitral Award of 1899 has been put before the International Court of Justice. That Court has ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear this case. Guyana has repeatedly encouraged Venezuela to participate in the case,” the Guyana Government said.

“The people of Guyana remain resolute against any threats to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of their country.

Neither the Government or the people of one country have the right in international law to seize, annex or take the territory of another country. International law emphatically prohibits this. The Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana calls the attention of the international community to the actions being carried out by the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela which have the potential to incite violence and to threaten the peace and security of the State of Guyana and by extension the Caribbean region,” the statement concluded.

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• Essequibo, Government, Guyana, questions, Venezuela

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