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News > Venezuela

Venezuela Rejects ICJ Decision on Guyana Essequibo

  • Archival image of Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza delivering a speech in Caracas, Venezuela.

    Archival image of Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza delivering a speech in Caracas, Venezuela. | Photo: EFE

Published 18 December 2020
Opinion

Venezuela reiterates the call for the matter to be solved through direct negotiations with Guyana.

The Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jorge Arreaza has published his government's rejection of the decision of the International Court of Justice on Guyana Esequiba, reiterating the call for the controversy to be channeled in an amicable manner through direct negotiations with Guyana, in compliance with International Law and the Geneva Agreement.

Below is the full text of the Venezuelan Government's communiqué:

Venezuela rejects the decision of the International Court of Justice contrary to the spirit of the Geneva Agreement on Guyana Essequibo.

RELATED:

Venezuela Reiterates Diplomatic Solution With Guyana over Essequibo

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has learned of the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), read at a hearing by video conference on December 18, 2020, in relation to the unilateral claim filed by the Cooperative Republic of Guyana against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on the validity of the 1899 Arbitration Award.

In this regard, the national and international community is informed of the following:

The Geneva Agreement is the only current bilateral taxing rule, applicable to settle, through friendly negotiations, the territorial dispute. The foregoing denies the judicial route, unable to reach the practical and satisfactory settlement that this Treaty imposes on both parties. In this sense, Venezuela has been and is willing to surrender to such friendly negotiations in order to reach a mutually satisfactory settlement.

In deciding that it has jurisdiction over the validity of the 1899 arbitral award based on Guyana's unilateral claim, the ICJ is making an incomprehensible and unusual mistake, not only in terms of Venezuela's lack of consent to such jurisdiction but in admitting an object of litigation different from the substantial object of the dispute as defined by the 1966 Geneva Agreement.

Jorge Arreaza rejected, on behalf of Nicolas Maduro, the decision of the International Court of Justice to declare itself competent in the dispute between Venezuela and Guyana over the Essequibo. 
 

The Court's decision not only violates its own established and decades-long doctrine but also its rich jurisprudence. Consequently, Venezuela rejects the ICJ's decision, in perfect consonance with the arguments that it timely provided -from its sovereign position of non-appearance- to assist the Court in its duty to issue a pronouncement where the law, the principles of law, and customary law required it to declare its evident lack of jurisdiction.

Consequently, and for the reasons set forth above, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela repudiates the judgment issued by the ICJ in the aforementioned terms, while once again claiming the validity of the Geneva Agreement of 1966 and ratifying that it will continue to exercise its just claim, given the grotesque fraud involved in the Arbitration Award of 1899 to the detriment of its territorial integrity.

Finally, Venezuela reiterates its call that this controversy is channeled in an amicable manner and proposes the initiation of direct negotiations with the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, in compliance with international law and based on the Geneva Agreement of 1966, which mandates both parties to resolve this controversy in a peaceful manner.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela calls upon all the Venezuelan people to unite around this historic national cause in defense of their sovereign right over Guyana Esequiba and to reject a decision that is detrimental to law, history, and justice.

The Venezuelan sun rises in the Essequibo.

Caracas, December 18, 2020

Venezuela rejects International Court of Justice decision contrary to the spirit of the Geneva Agreement on Guayana Essequibo


 

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