Guyana will ask UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Venezuela if ICJ order is violated

Last Updated on Tuesday, 5 December 2023, 13:09 by Denis Chabrol

Attorney General Anil Nandlall addressing the Guyana Bar Association’s symposium on the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy

Attorney General Anil Nandlall on Tuesday said the Guyana government would ask the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to authorise wide-ranging sanctions or military action against Venezuela if the Nicolas Maduro administration breaches World Court order in line with last Sunday’s referendum.

If Venezuela violates the December 1, 2023 ICJ order by taking any action, which would modify the situation that currently prevails in the territory in dispute, whereby Guyana administers and exercises control over Essequibo, Mr Nandlall said : “We will explore every avenue available and obviously that is an avenue; that is one of if not the most important avenue,” he said when asked to elaborate on his presentation at a Guyana Bar Association (GBA)-organised awareness session on the Guyana-Venezuela border dispute.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) said more than 10 million persons voted in favour of five questions including rubber stamping government’s position of not recognizing the ICJ’s jurisdiction to resolve the territorial controversy over the Essequibo county; the creation of that county as a State of Venezuela, the granting of citizenship and Venezuelan identity cards to people living there and incorporating that State on the map of Venezuelan territory.

A section of the attendees at the Guyana Bar Association’s symposium on the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy

The Venezuelan government has not stated clearly what it plans to do now that the referendum has been held.

Unofficial accounts said the referendum suffered from a low voter turnout. Agencia EFE quoted Venezuelan opposition leader, Henrique Capriles claimed that the participation in Sunday’s non-binding referendum saw a turnout of 2,110,864 voters out of 20.69 million citizens, an abstention of over 89 percent. “This gimmick of a referendum backfired,” Mr Nandlall told the GBA symposium.

Mr Nandlall told the GBA symposium that the United States and United Kingdom, which played a historical role in the 1899 Arbitral Tribunal Award had a “duty to ensure that the process that they engineered and participated in is respected” rather being officious bystanders. At the same time, the Attorney General said he was confident that the international partner would allow the ICJ order to be ignored or that would amount to a strike against international legal process, global order and at the heart of the United Nations (UN) itself as the ICJ is its organ.

Noting that the ICJ orders are binding and enforceable, he highlighted that that the UNSC could take special measures, at the request of the injured State, including economic sanctions, travel restrictions and the use of military force including blockades by air, sea and land forces. “You have a wide range of measures that are available at the level of the ICJ and by extension at the level of the UN Security Council to enforce decisions of the ICJ,” he said.

President Irfaan Ali, earlier this week, cautioned the Venezuelan government against creating conditions that could create even worse economic and social problems for 0rdinary Venezuelans and worsen migration and security problems for Latin America and the Caribbean.