Venezuela issues more than 4,000 identity cards near the disputed area with Guyana

Nicolas Maduro, speaking alongside the President of the Bolivarian National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez (offscreen), during a meeting of the Federal Government Council at the Miraflores Presidential Palace, in Caracas.

Department of Identity, Immigration and Aliens Venezuela Simi has issued 4,015 ID cards since December 10 in the town of Tomirimo, near EssequiboVenezuela, an area of about 160,000 square kilometers that the country disputes with neighboring Guyana, notified the Venezuelan government on Saturday 23. The Ministry of the Interior and Justice said in a statement that “a total of 4,015 identity documents” were issued during the “special day” that the country’s government wants Through it, Venezuelan citizenship is granted to those living in the disputed region, which Guyana has controlled for more than 100 years. The trip ordered by the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro“It served more than 30 sectors in the municipality of Cifuentes” on the border with Essequibo, “as well as six educational units, benefiting indigenous communities in the region,” the document says. Simi intends to resume this work on January 8 “to continue the renewal of the document, as well as the first notarization” in this city located in the Amazonian state of Bolivar, which also borders Brazil.

Through Instagram, the foundation shared many photos and videos showing the delivery of ID cards in the city, where the authority bodies created by Maduro unilaterally, in his attempt to annex the region to Venezuela, will be temporarily established. Providing identity documents to people living in the disputed region is one of the measures proposed by Venezuela, after a majority agreed to annex the territory in a unilateral referendum on December 3, sparking diplomatic tension in the region. However, on December 14, Maduro and the President of Guyana met, Irfan AliAfter a meeting in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, they agreed that their countries would not threaten each other and avoid accidents. The dispute is still before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, an institution that Venezuela rejects.

*With information from EFE