The acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, traveled this Sunday to the Netherlands to present before the headquarters of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague the position of the Venezuelan Government in the prolonged territorial dispute it maintains with Guyana and which is currently being heard in said court.
The objective of this displacement is to head the presentation of the final arguments of the Venezuelan State in the oral hearings phase, a key stretch of the process that concludes tomorrow Monday, May 11.
The disputed area, called Guayana Esequiba by Caracas, is under the administration of Guyana by virtue of an 1899 arbitral award. For Georgetown, this territory passed to the United Kingdom through an agreement signed with the Netherlands in 1814, so Venezuela must abide by the limits set in that award.
Caracas, on the other hand, maintains that the 1966 Geneva Agreement, still in force, supports its claims by considering that the award was actually a political settlement between the British authorities and the Russian jurist Friedrich Martens, a member of the arbitral tribunal whose vote was decisive for the final decision.
Upon its arrival, Venezuela comes to "defend the majesty and vigor of the Geneva Agreement" and reiterated the stance that "Venezuela is the sole owner of Essequibo". "It has become very clear," he added in statements collected by the Venezuelan state television channel VTV, "that the only one who has the right to ownership of this territory in this territorial dispute is Venezuela."
In The Hague are already the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yván Gil, and the agent before the ICJ, Samuel Moncada, who make up the Venezuelan delegation in charge of following the case.