Venezuela urges Guyana to reject third-party “interference” in Essequibo dispute

Venezuela appealed this Thursday Guyana reject the interference of third parties in the dispute over the Essequibofollowing a meeting of its foreign ministers in Brasilia to face the crisis in this oil-rich territory.

“We strictly reject the possibility of third parties interfering in or benefiting from a possible discussion or a possible controversy between Guyana It is Venezuela“said the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Yvan Gilat the end of the meeting with his Guyanese counterpart, Hugh HiltonTodd.

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Tensions between the two countries, which raised fears of an armed conflict in the region, intensified at the end of 2023 with the arrival of a British warship in Guyanese waters.

Venezuela saw this maneuver as a provocation and mobilized more than 5,600 men in military exercises near the disputed border.

Venezuela maintains that Essequiboregion of 160 thousand km2 rich in natural resources and under Guyanese administration, has been part of its territory since it was a colony of Spain.

The meeting in Brasilia It was the first since Presidents Nicolás Maduro It is Irfaan Ali They met on December 14 on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and the Grenadinesin a first attempt to reduce tension.

Gil highlighted the importance of designing “a script” to resolve the territorial dispute through diplomatic channels and urged its neighbor to “reaffirm that neither party will resort to mentioning threats or invoking the use of force”.

It was “a very frank and very open discussion, without limitations“, he noted after the meeting, in which the chancellor of Brazil, Mauro Vieira.

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Schedule

To resolve the controversy, Venezuela appeals to Geneva Agreementsigned in 1966, before Guyana’s independence from UKwhich laid the groundwork for a negotiated solution and annulled an 1899 ruling.

This award also established the limits that Georgetown demands of International Court of Justice (ICJ) to ratify.

Although it is a centuries-old dispute, the dispute intensified in 2015 after the American oil company ExxonMobil discovered large deposits of crude oil in the claimed area.

And tensions increased following the holding of a referendum on Essequibo sovereignty on December 3 in Venezuela, which promoted the creation of a formal state in that territory, seen by Georgetown -who administers it- as an attempt at annexation.

Maduro even created a military zone for this area of ​​125 thousand inhabitants, present in the official military salute: “Venezuela’s sun rises in Essequibo”.

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For Ivan RojasVenezuelan internationalist, the meeting aimed to maintain the “open dialogue”, without attending to substantive negotiations.

Gil assured the day before that the work agenda included “guide all conversations under this agreement”of Geneva and especially review the“for maritime spaces that have not been delimited”.

Georgetown insisted that these meetings will not address the territorial dispute, which it leaves in the hands of the ICJ. Ali said that the meeting would rather serve to outline an agenda with issues related to “trade, climate, energy security… improve our neighborly relationship”.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.