Latest update October 16th, 2026 7:52 AM
Guyana, Venezuela controversy
Dear Editor,
As the heads of countries addressed the United Nations General Assembly, Venezuela’s Delcy Rodriguez did not hesitate to use the opportunity to advance, in her words, “our reaffirmation of Venezuela’s historic rights over Guayana Esequiba” and then proceeds to misrepresent the Geneva Agreement by calling upon Guyana “to resolve and return to negotiations as mandated by the Geneva Agreement.”
In fact, just before we became an independent country, the Venezuelan government, in 1962, unilaterally revived its claim to the Essequibo, rejecting the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award, declaring it null and void. The Award had settled the boundaries between Guyana and Venezuela and had been accepted by Venezuela for more than 60 years.
The British government refused to entertain the claim and, 3 months before Guyana’s independence was agreed, called a Conference in Geneva to address the controversy which resulted in the 1966 Geneva Agreement and to which Guyana became a Party on becoming independent.
It is well established history now that the Geneva Agreement established a framework for the peaceful settlement of the controversy and, importantly, provided that if the controversy could not be settled between Guyana and Venezuela, then the Secretary-General of the United Nations would provide the means of settlement in accordance with the provisions of Article 33 of the United Nations Charter.
The Venezuelan government has consistently chosen to ignore this provision, as did Rodriguez, when she called upon Guyana to “return to negotiations as mandated by the Geneva Agreement.”
We know that in January 2018, acting under his mandate of Article IV (ii) of the Geneva Agreement, the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, determined that the controversy could not be settled through negotiations and should be resolved by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The case before the ICJ has now entered its deliberative phase and the final judgement, which is binding on both Guyana and Venezuela under international law, is likely to be delivered early next year.
Rodriguez has already pronounced that her government will not recognise the findings of the ICJ, whereas, Guyana has pledged to respect and abide by the ICJ’s final judgement.
What has changed dramatically in all of this, is that since the U.S. government removed Maduro from Venezuela and Rodriguez has taken over, the U.S. government has taken over Venezuela and Rodriguez is reporting to U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
The U.S. government has consistently supported Guyana against the Venezuelan claim and has remained our staunchest ally in this regard and there is no conceivable reason why this should change. Nevertheless, given Delcy Rodriguez’s purposeful misrepresentation of the Geneva Agreement at the UN General Assembly, we are far from out of the woods as yet with regard to the Venezuelan threat to our sovereignty.
Yours sincerely,
Kit Nascimento
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