A recently updated map that shows a resource-rich area that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro disputes with neighbouring Guyana as part of his country has been made public.
According to Maduro, a map that includes the province of “Guyana Esequiba” will be published and given out in colleges and institutions on Tuesday.
The president stated that a bill establishing the new province has already been presented to the nation’s legislature.
Throughout the 19th century, there has been conflict between the two nations over the region that Guyana refers to as “Essequibo.” Venezuela never acknowledged the US arbitration’s 1899 ruling to allocate the area to Guyana, a British colony at the time. The matter was brought to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2018 by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The Hague-based court ruled in April that it had jurisdiction over the case.
In Venezuela, a vote on the status of “Guyana Esequiba” on Sunday yielded results that strongly favoured Maduro’s administration. The vote affirmed Caracas’s right to reject both the ICJ’s jurisdiction over the case and the arbitration ruling from 1899. It also supported a plan to grant citizenship to Venezuelans living in the territory ruled by Guyana.
Maduro declared that operating licences for the discovery and exploitation of oil, gas, and minerals in Venezuela’s Guayana Esequiba will be granted by state-run businesses “immediately.”
He clarified that any other businesses functioning in the region would have three months to leave the area. He also mentioned that “Guayana Esequiba” would be established as a zone of essential defence.
Under a licence from the Guyanese government, a group led by the US corporation Exxon Mobil began extracting oil off the coast of Guyana in late 2019, and exports started the following year.
Guyanese President Irfaan Ali stated later on Tuesday that Maduro was behaving with “blatant disregard” for the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which declared last week that Venezuela was not allowed to alter the status quo in the region.
Ali remarked, “Venezuela has clearly declared itself an outlaw nation. The Guyana Defence Force is on high alert.” He continued by saying that the nation would be getting in touch with the ICJ and the UN Security Council about the incident on Wednesday morning.
Ali also addressed foreign businesses doing business in Guyana, stressing that Georgetown has the backing of the world community in its conflict with Caracas and said, “Our message is very clear, your investments are safe.”
