Last Updated on Tuesday, 5 December 2023, 15:02 by Written By Denis Chabrol
The United States (US) government has scoffed at last Sunday’s referendum which Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said gave an almost 100 percent approval for the border controversy to be settled outside the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
“We would urge Venezuela and Guyana to continue to seek a peaceful resolution of their dispute. This is not something that will be settled by a referendum,” State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller told a news briefing on Wednesday.
He said the US wanted the controversy over the Essequibo Region to be settled peacefully and that the 1899 Arbitral Tribunal Award that settled the land boundary between Guyana and Venezuela should not be violated unless the two countries find another solution or it settled by law.
“I will say that we support a peaceful resolution of the border dispute between Venezuela and Guyana. The 1899 award determined the land boundary between Venezuela and Guyana should be respected unless or until the parties come to a new agreement or a competent legal body decides otherwise,” he said.
But the Venezuelan leader on Tuesday asserted that the 1966 Geneva Agreement is the only legal instrument to address the Essequibo controversy.
During his appearance on the “Con Maduro Mas” TV program, the Bolivarian leader referred to statements from the spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, Matthew Miller, who argued that Venezuela cannot resolve the Essequibo territory dispute through a referendum.
“Without provocations, arrogance, or warlike speeches, the Geneva Agreement is the unique legal instrument, as approved by the Venezuelan people, and that is how we will enforce it,” Maduro was quoted by the State-owned TeleSur as saying. Venezuela continues to maintain that the ICJ does not have jurisdiction to settle the border dispute and has interpreted the Geneva Agreement to mean that the settlement could only be done by negotiations. The Venezuelan president also questioned the U.S. government’s stance on the Venezuela-Guyana dispute, accusing them of encouraging aggression against his country.
He also specified that the consensus levels on question number two, related to the Geneva Agreement as the only valid instrument for resolving the territorial controversy, were evident with the 98.26 percent approval it received. The Venezuelan President is relying on Sunday’s referendum on five questions as the basis for moving forward, although he has not been clear about his administration’s next steps. “For the first time in the Venezuelan political and electoral history, over 96 percent of the voters approved a proposal… This shows the very high level of consensus that the majority of Venezuelans have on the five questions, which constitute a consulted, shared, and decided national vision,” he affirmed.
On Sunday, over 10,400,000 Venezuelan citizens took part in the Essequibo consultative referendum, which concluded with a resounding victory for the “YES” vote.
Guyana’s Attorney General Anil Nandlall has not only questioned the accuracy of Sunday’s referendum but has accused Venezuela of deliberately avoiding the ICJ because it could not prove its case that the 1899 Tribunal Award was the product of collusion. A junior American-Mexican lawyer, Mallet Prevost had made such claims in a letter that he had purportedly asked to be opened only after he dies.
Mr Nandlall on Tuesday said Guyana would ask the United Nations Security Council to authorise the imposition of economic sanctions or military action if Venezuela violates an ICJ order that prohibits Venezuela from taking any action, which would modify the situation that currently prevails in the territory in dispute, whereby Guyana administers and exercises control over Essequibo.
