Guyana will write nations that recently mediated an agreement between Venezuela’s government and opposition objecting to the claim in the pact to this country’s county of Essequibo.
“As far as we are concerned, if they have an engagement, whichever country believes that they have an engagement with Venezuela in resolving their internal issues, they should stick to the internal issues. The issue of the controversy that exists in the border has nothing to do with their internal issues and it has already been determined where that issue will be settled and it’s at the ICJ (Inter-national Court of Justice) , the President yesterday told reporters, on the sidelines of the Barama Company Limited anniversary event.
“What we can ask those countries to do is to encourage Venezuela to participate and be active in the ICJ,” he added.
Last week, during talks in Mexico City, Venezuela’s government and opposition representatives reached a partial agreement on its claim of Guyana’s Essequibo region. Venezuela has sought to claim most of Guyana’s Atlantic waters, which includes the offshore Stabroek Block, where ExxonMobil is leading oil production.
The agreement was brokered by Norway alongside representatives from the Netherlands, Bolivia, Russia and Turkey.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Nicolas Maduro government and the opposition coalition agreed that Venezuela has a “historic and inalienable” claim to Guyana’s Essequibo region, the focus of a century-old controversy.
President Ali said that Guyana plans to formally write to all of the countries and its content will be similar to what this country has said when the announcement of the agreement was made.
“This is a controversy. The route in determining it has already been made public. We have embraced that route which is the ICJ and we are committed to that route. That route is the rule of law and that is where the matter resides, not in any sideshow or any other engagement,” he said.
In addition, he said that he will use every opportunity given to inform global heads of the issue.
“I plan to formally inform all the heads in the region. There is an emergency meeting of CARICOM tomorrow morning. We [Guyana] will be addressing this statement; I will take the opportunity to do that. I am also scheduled to be in Mexico at the CELAC meeting where all the Heads will there, I will take the opportunity to do the same with the Heads bilaterally and also and on the margins of the UN meeting, I have an engagement with the UN Secretary General,” he said.
This is not the first time that the Venezuelan opposition and government have raised the Guyana controversy as a means of finding common ground in their otherwise intractable domestic differences. Several years ago under Vatican mediation the matter was also raised.
Observers have pointed out that this week’s stance of the Venezuelan government and opposition is archaic and overtaken by the fact that the controversy is before the ICJ for final settlement.
In what is seen as a major victory for this country in its bid to definitively settle a decades-old controversy, the ICJ last December ruled that it has jurisdiction to determine the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award on the frontier between Guyana and Venezuela.
The Court – the principal judicial organ of the United Nations – also declared that it could address the related question of the definitive settlement of the land boundary controversy between the two territories.
Venezuela has chosen not to participate in the case.
Over the years Guyana has gained increasing international support for its position.
