The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela informs to the people and the international community that today, February 26th, 2021, at 11 am Caracas time, it attended an invitation from the recently appointed President of the International Court of Justice, Ms. Joan E. Donoghue, to attend a virtual meeting, derived from the preliminary ruling of December 18th last year on a unilateral claim by Guyana, whose decision Venezuela rejects due to its severe errors and irregularities.
Venezuela has respectfully ratified that it has participated as a courtesy, not as a Party to this proceeding. It has expressly reaffirmed its historic position of non-recognition of the jurisdiction of the Court to hear the territorial dispute over the Guyana Esequiba. On the contrary, it has emphasized the validity of the 1966 Geneva Agreement to reach a practical and mutually satisfactory settlement for the Parties, through amicable negotiations.
Venezuela reiterated that there is no basis for jurisdiction in this case since it has never granted its consent, and even less so with respect to the unilateral claim by Guyana that harms the sense, purpose and reason of the Geneva Agreement.
Venezuela took advantage of this cordial occasion to reiterate that it did not appeared in the phase opened by the Court to determine its jurisdiction over the claim of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, because the corresponding thing has been to emphasize its position, in the absence of its consent to the judicial course that has been granted to said unilateral action.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela also expressed its concern over the unjustified haste in a preliminary procedure on a secular matter of great importance, at a very difficult time when all of humanity is facing one of the most serious pandemics in more than a century.
Venezuela has also warned that this decision has created a de facto situation whose consequences must be weighed with sufficient time, so that the sovereign rights of the Republic are in the best proception as mandated by the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, given that any matter that touches, even tangentially, the territorial integrity of the Republic, calls for its most committed reaction within the framework of International Public Law.
Venezuela warned of the importance of preserving the threshold of equality in the face of objective circumstances such as unilateral coercive measures, which disrupt the normal development of national life and undermine the ability to guarantee the rights of the Republic; to which must be added the difficulties inherent in times of the unprecedented pandemic.
It also denounced the instigation and undue interference of the malicious ambition of energy transnationals in this dispute over such a vast territory filled with biological diversity and natural resources, which threatens planetary life, peace and regional security.
Venezuela informed that has made a new appeal to the UN Secretary-General to resume direct negotiation mechanisms between Guyana and Venezuela, as he himself has offered in his last communiqué dated January 28th, 2021.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela reaffirms its commitment and good faith to reach a peaceful and political solution that guarantees peace in our Region and renews the invitation to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana to take the path of direct negotiations.
THE SUN OF VENEZUELA RISES IN THE ESSEQUIBO
“GOD GRANTS VICTORY TO CONSTANCY”
Simón Bolívar
Caracas, February 26th, 2021