For several months, tension has been rising between Venezuela and Guyana. The object of discord: the Essequibo region. A territory rich in oil that the Venezuelan president wishes to annex by a referendum with its population.
The Essequibo territory has been the subject of negotiations between the two South American states since 1966. This region is so rich in oil that its reserves could allow Guyana to surpass those of Kuwait and the Emirates, with at least ten billion barrels. The discovery was made recently by the consortium responsible for exploiting the area and led by the American ExxonMobil. The Venezuelans are furious, they consider that the exploitation was decided unilaterally by Guyana, in defiance of the Geneva agreement signed in 1966. This agreement provided for negotiations so that the two countries reach a peaceful solution on the Essequibo. , a territory they both claim.
Except that the negotiations never came to fruition and the dispute was entrusted, in 2018, to the International Court of Justice. A court whose jurisdiction Venezuela does not recognize to handle this case. Seeing the Essequibo oil jackpot slipping through his hands, Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan president, decided to take justice into his own hands. He is completely considering annexing this territory – which covers two-thirds of Guyana. Maduro is therefore planning a military intervention. A project that he will submit to a referendum on December 3, in a country which no longer has any opponents.
Guyana today affirms that this referendum constitutes “an existential threat”. Its president Irfaan Ali asks the International Court of Justice to stop “urgently” the organization of this referendum. Maduro is demanding a return to negotiations on the Essequibo dispute, within the framework of the Geneva agreement, because he claims to want to resolve this situation diplomatically. But concretely, you only need to listen to the referendum promotion campaign to understand the intentions of the Venezuelan government. “Today the armed forces join the campaign to regain ‘All of Venezuela’. We are History, we are a people, we are the children of Bolivar. Essequibo belongs to us”, explains this campaign. Nicolas Maduro is therefore only waiting for the approval of his people to act and launch his troops to conquer the Essequibo.
The frameworks set by the United Nations are regularly flouted
This story illustrates the respect given today to the framework set by the United Nations. In this specific case, the decision of the International Court of Justice may be binding, but it will have no leverage to enforce it. Even more serious are the examples given by the great powers, Russia in Crimea and the Donbass, for example. Or again, the United States of Trump when it recognized, in 2019, the sovereignty of Israel in the Syrian Golan. China, when it publishes the map of its borders including Taiwan. It is a strong trend, which ends up uninhibited by leaders like Nicolas Maduro when he considers that it is becoming urgent to recover part of Guyana.