The members of the Security Council expressed on Monday, through a statement, their “concern” about the possible escalation of tensions between Venezuela and Guyana, due to the dispute over the Essequibo.
In this sense, they urged the parties to “exercise maximum restraint” within the framework of compliance with the Provisional Measures Order, issued by the International Court of Justice in December 2023 and to “resolve their differences by peaceful means.”
In the statement, the Council also points out the importance of Latin America and the Caribbean continuing to be “a Zone of Peace” and highlighted “the regional efforts” that resulted in the conclusion of the Argyle Declaration of Peace and Dialogue of 14 December 2023.
The Council's position is known a few days after the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, accuse the United States to install secret military bases in Essequibo.
“We have proven information that in the territory of Guyana Essequiba, temporarily administered by Guyana, they have installed secret military bases of the Southern Command, military nuclei and nuclei of the CIA,” he said on April 4 at the act of promulgation of the Organic Law by the Defense of Guyana Essequiba which was condemned by Guyana.
The Venezuelan Parliament with a pro-government majority unanimously approved in March a law that leads to the creation of the state of Guayana Esequiba, a territory in dispute between Venezuela and Guyana.
The historic controversy between Venezuela and Guyana over the Essequibo, a territory of about 160,000 square kilometers, rich in natural resources, worsened in recent months, after the Guyanese government carried out oil tenders in areas pending delimitation.
Last year Venezuela carried out a consultative referendum in which, according to the Electoral Branch, more than 10 million people They rejected the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the dispute and supported the incorporation of the Essequibo territory as a new Venezuelan state. Guyana considered the event a threat.
While Venezuela maintains that the Geneva Agreement of 1966 is the only valid mechanism to resolve the conflict over sovereignty, Guyana insists on the validity of the Paris Arbitration Award of 1899 that ceded the territory to the United Kingdom, which at that time maintained Guyana as a colony and which the Venezuelan State considers null and void.
The government of Venezuela presented last week before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a document with the arguments and bases that demonstrate its sovereign right over the Essequibo, but clarified that in any case it does not recognize the jurisdiction of that instance in the dispute.
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