The Bolivarian government commemorated this Tuesday, “with a deep sense of unity and sovereignty,” the 59th anniversary of the signing of that document, signed by this country and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the border that divides both States.
The official note indicated that this international treaty, duly deposited in the United Nations Organization, “buried the discussion on the validity or invalidity of the Arbitration Award of 1899.”
In addition to establishing the obligation of the parties to end the territorial controversy in relation to the Essequibo region, through “a practical and mutually acceptable arrangement.”
“Fifty-nine years after its signing, Venezuela reaffirms the full validity of the Geneva Agreement and denounces the constant and systematic violations by the Government of Guyana, which has attempted to ignore its commitments and unilaterally dispose of a territory that does not belong to it,” it stated.
It denounced that the neighboring authorities allow “the abusive, illicit and illegitimate exploitation of oil, gold and other precious minerals present in the disputed territory,” to favor Exxon Mobil and other large energy transnationals, with the formal and official protest of the Bolivarian Republic.
The text stated that the Guyanese Government “persists in its stubborn interest in putting at risk the tranquility and peace of the Latin American and Caribbean region, in open complicity with external factors,” which includes the installation of military bases of the United States Southern Command in the Essequibo territory.
“Venezuela will not yield to any maneuver that seeks to deprive it of the historical rights bequeathed by its liberators after the independence struggle,” it stressed.
He reaffirmed that the Essequibo Guayana “is and will be an indisputable part of Venezuelan territorial integrity” and the fight for its recovery remains an unwavering cause of all the people, who expressed their almost unanimous support for the Geneva Agreement in the consultative referendum of December 3, 2023.
Fifty-nine years after the signing and validity of the Geneva Agreement, “Guyana is obliged to sit down to negotiate immediately, without further delay,” he said, and affirmed that Venezuela’s historical rights and its ownership over the Essequibo Guayana are irrefutable and non-negotiable.
He also stressed that the Geneva Agreement is the only established and agreed upon way between the parties to resolve this territorial controversy. “The sun of Venezuela rises in the Essequibo!” he concluded.
Georgetown considers the Paris Arbitration Award of 1899, which Caracas describes as “null and void,” as a legal mechanism to maintain its position on Essequibo and filed a legal appeal before the International Court of Justice, the legal process for which is still underway.
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