Venezuela’s National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution on Tuesday pledging full support for the defense of the Esequibo region, calling for national unity behind what lawmakers called a “sacred sovereignty mandate” that overrides all political differences.

The move comes just one day after acting President Delcy Rodríguez rejected the International Court of Justice’s jurisdiction over the dispute at the UN’s top court in The Hague.

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Parliament Speaker Jorge Rodríguez argued that internal cohesion is Venezuela’s strongest leverage on the international stage. “If Guyana sees that Venezuelans are united, they will have no choice but to comply with the law,” he said. He warned that international tribunals tend to produce zero-sum rulings, leaving one side dissatisfied and obstructing practical solutions.

Deputy José Gregorio Vielma Mora described the moment as “decisive for republican history,” stressing that defending the Esequibo’s land and continental shelf is a constitutional duty, not a partisan issue. He reaffirmed that the 1966 Geneva Agreement remains the only valid framework for resolving the controversy and dismissed the 1899 Paris Arbitral Award—cited by Guyana—as a “flawed, void, and null” fraud.

Other opposition figures, including Antonio Ecarri and José Gregorio Correa, also rejected Guyana’s oil concessions in undelimited waters. They backed the government’s stance at The Hague, defending Venezuela’s 1777 colonial borders and the historical legacy of the country’s liberators.

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