Guyana announced on Thursday that it issued an urgent request to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to stop neighboring Venezuela from holding a sham election for governor of “Guayana Esequiba,” a purported new state that the socialist regime intends to carve out in the contested Essequibo region.
Guyana’s Foreign Ministry made the announcement in a press release informing that it requested the ICJ issue provisional measures in light of Venezuela’s upcoming election. For over 120 years, Venezuela and Guyana have maintained a territorial dispute over the Essequibo, a 61,600-square-mile territory rich in resources that Guyana currently administers, and which represents approximately two-thirds of its entire territory. Guyana argued that Venezuela’s electoral plans stand in violation of ICJ court orders.
The dispute is yet to reach a final, conclusive ruling at international organizations and remained relatively dormant throughout the 1900s up until the past decade, when socialist Nicolás Maduro reignited the dispute through hostile threats against Guyana and called to annex the Essequibo in response to the neighboring nation signing offshore oil drill contracts with American company ExxonMobil in the contested region.
On Wednesday, Maduro reiterated his threats and claimed that he will take “all necessary measures” to stop ExxonMobil’s operations in the contested area.
Justifying his actions on the “results” of a sham December 2023 referendum, the Maduro regime passed a law in March 2024 to formally “create” a 24th Venezuelan state called “Guayana Esequiba” that allegedly occupies the entirety of the contested 61,600-square-mile territory.
At the time, Maduro and his socialist lawmakers appointed Alexis Rodriguez Cabello to serve as interim “governor” of the purported state until an election were to take place. Rodríguez Cabello is the brother of Diosdado Cabello, Venezuelan interior minister and long-suspected drug lord actively wanted by U.S. authorities on multiple narco-terrorism charges.
The Venezuelan socialists are slated to hold regional sham elections on May 25 to elect new governors for Venezuela’s 23 states, the purportedly new “Guayana Esequiba” state, and their respective local legislatures. The sham election was originally slated to take place on April 27 but was then rescheduled for May 25.
Elvis Amoroso, head of the Maduro-loyal National Electoral Center (CNE), claimed that the new May date had the “intention of facilitating and promoting the participation of the different actors in society.”
The Guyanese Foreign Ministry accused Venezuela of “affecting the Guyanese population and Guyana’s sovereignty over its territory” through its electoral plans and describing Venezuela and his annexation plans as violating an ICJ ruling issued on December 2023 that calls for Venezuela to refrain from taking any action that would change the situation of the Essequibo.
“Guyana considers that Venezuela’s plan to hold elections in ‘the territory in dispute’ flagrantly violates this Order,” the Guyanese Foreign Ministry said. Guyana’s current request seeks confirmation of this by the court, as well as an explicit directive to refrain from any electoral activities within or affecting this territory or its population, which consist of Guyanese nationals.
“Guyana further requested the Court to convene hearings on its request as soon as possible, to enable such provisional measures as might be indicated by the Court to be issued before serious and irremediable prejudice to Guyana’s rights occurs,” the statement concluded.
In light of Maduro’s threats and hostile rekindling of the over 120-year-old territorial dispute, Guyana issued a formal request to the ICJ. The court ruled in April 2023 that it has jurisdiction over the Essequibo dispute but noted that a final ruling is “years away” from being issued. Maduro has repeatedly insisted that neither him nor his socialist regime will recognize any ICJ ruling on the matter.
The ongoing territorial dispute long predates the arrival of the ruling Venezuelan socialist regime and Guyana’s existence as an independent nation. Venezuela has historically claimed that the Essequibo is part of its borders since the nation gained its independence from Spain in 1811.
An 1899 arbitration process held in Paris granted control of the contested territory to Guyana, then known as British Guiana. Venezuela has maintained throughout its history that the 1899 Paris arbitration was fraudulent. Decades later, in 1966, Venezuela and the United Kingdom signed an agreement in Geneva weeks before Guyana gained its independence from British rule that gave control of the Essequibo to Guyana until a permanent solution to the dispute was found — however, no such permanent solution has ever been reached in the subsequent decades.
The yet-to-be celebrated May sham regional election will mark the latest fraudulent electoral event in Venezuela since the sham July 28, 2024, presidential election, which Maduro insists he “won” despite the continued refusal of local electoral authorities to publish voter data that can corroborate the dictator’s claimed “victory.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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