Understand how the dispute between Venezuela and Guyana over oil territory enters the Venezuelan political debate world

Venezuela has called for a referendum on December 3, in which Venezuelans will be asked whether they support the creation of a new province called “Guayana Esquipa” on an area of ​​160,000 square kilometers where there are enormous natural resources, as well as granting citizenship to 125,000 local residents. . .

The problem is that this area, known as Essequibo, is administered by another country, Guyana.

The two countries have disputed Essequibo since 1966. In 2015, the dispute intensified with the discovery of oil fields in the region by the American company ExxonMobil.

• Guyana It states that it is the owner of the territory because there is a report from 1899, issued in Paris, in which the current boundaries were determined.
• actually Venezuela It states that the territory belongs to it because this was stated in an agreement signed with the United Kingdom in 1966, before Guyana’s independence, in which the arbitration ruling was annulled and the basis for a negotiated solution was laid.

Guyana wants the dispute resolved in the International Court of Justice. Venezuela wants to try to negotiate with the neighboring country.

This issue is involved in the internal political dispute in Venezuela

Venezuela is scheduled to hold presidential elections next year. Opposition politicians decided to hold a preliminary vote to choose one candidate, and the winner was Maria Corina Machado. There are still doubts about whether she will be able to carry the name of the opposition because the Venezuelan court decided that she cannot run.

Corinna asked on Wednesday (22) to question the referendum on the territorial dispute with Guyana.

“The referendum on Essequibo must be suspended,” said the opposition figure, who viewed the mechanism as a distraction amid the Venezuelan political, economic and social climate ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.

“It is a mistake not only to do nothing to defend our territory, but it could also harm us in our defense before the International Court of Justice,” she added.

Corinna considers this territory to be Venezuelan, but the country must prepare to present “an unobjectionable defense that proves Venezuela’s rights” in Essequibo.

The politician visited the region in 2013, when she was a member of Parliament, and appeared with other opponents in a photo holding a banner that read: “Essequibo is ours.”