Essequibo Dispute: Guyana Intends to Violate Geneva Agreement
Orinoco Tribune, October 2, 2023 —
“Venezuela rejects Guyana’s communiqué, with which Guyana intends to ignore the Geneva Agreement of 1966, and demands that it cease its subservient behavior to the interests of Exxon Mobil,” wrote the Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil in a statement posted on the X social media network. In addition, Gil urged the Guyanese government to halt “the militarization of the area, to adhere to international law, and to sit down at the negotiating table, the only mechanism for the resolution of the territorial dispute.”
The response of Venezuela came after the government of Guyana expressed its intention to violate the historic Geneva agreement, the only mechanism in place that has resolved the territorial dispute.
On September 30, Guyana published a communiqué stating that it intends to use a supposed judicial means to solve the controversy “since this excludes the nature and purpose of the Geneva Agreement, which should reach a practical and satisfactory solution for both parties through political negotiations,” reads the document released by Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Gil.
Below is an unofficial translation of the full text of Venezuela’s communiqué:
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects the communiqué of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, issued on September 30, 2023, which once again shows itself as a subordinate government, hostage of the transnational Exxon Mobil, which prohibits it from resuming a sovereign dialogue with Venezuela and finding the diplomatic path to solve the territorial controversy of the Guayana Esequiba.
It is contradictory that, a few days ago, the Ambassador of Guyana to the United Nations expressed that “The Geneva Agreement of 1966 is, in fact, the binding legal instrument that provides for the solution of the dispute over the validity of the Arbitral Award of 1899 and the land border between Guyana and Venezuela”, and that, today, the Guyanese government contradicts it, ignoring the fundamental premise of said agreement, which was agreed between Venezuela and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland before the Cooperative Republic of Guyana existed.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela reiterates that it does not recognize the judicial mechanism as a means of resolving the dispute, since it excludes the nature and purpose of the Geneva Agreement, which should reach a practical and satisfactory solution for both Parties through political negotiations.
The arrogant and hostile position of Guyana, denying dialogue and diplomacy, is the greatest obstacle to reaching a solution within the framework of Public International Law. The tutelage of transnational corporations has become a dangerous stimulus to the disturbance of regional peace and the noncompliance with the international obligations of this country, in addition to the reckless and provocative conduct of association with the Southern Command of the United States of America, to install military bases in the disputed area.
Venezuela denounces once again that, apart from the discussion of the land border, the Government of Guyana has deployed a series of illicit actions to dispose of maritime areas that are pending delimitation, granting exploration licenses in said areas. This situation has reached the extreme of carrying out explorations, together with Exxon Mobil, in undisputed Venezuelan maritime areas.
The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, once again, demands that the Government of Guyana desist from its servile conduct to the interests of Exxon Mobil, stop the militarization of the area, abide by international law, and sit down at the negotiating table, as it is obliged to do by the Geneva Agreement of 1966 and International Law, respectively.
The Venezuelan sun rises in the Essequibo!