Venezuelan FM slams US Secretary of State over disputed territory

Minister of People's Power for Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Yvan Gil Pinto has said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is attempting to strip Venezuela of its rights to the disputed territory with Guyana.

“Marco Rubio, an enemy of our country, as Secretary of State, continues to demonstrate his unhealthy obsession with harming Venezuela. Now he is trying to support the fantasies of the Government of Guyana, which seeks to strip us of the historical rights bequeathed to us by our liberators and which are an inalienable part of our sovereignty,” Gil said through his Telegram channel, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media.

Gil reiterated that the only legitimate and valid resolution to the Essequibo territorial dispute lies in adhering to the 1966 Geneva Agreement.

He emphasized that Guyana's responsibility is to history, international law, and regional peace, not to third parties. Therefore, it must engage in negotiations based on the framework set by the Geneva Agreement.

The dispute between Venezuela and Guyana over the ownership of the 159,500 square kilometre territory west of the Essequibo River, known as Essequibo Guyana, has been ongoing for over a century. This area constitutes more than two-thirds of Guyana’s landmass. The territorial conflict intensified following the discovery of oil reserves in 2015, containing at least 10 billion barrels of oil, and the granting of an oil exploration concession to ExxonMobil by Guyana, despite the lack of clearly defined maritime boundaries. 

On December 14, 2023, following high-level negotiations in Kingstown, the capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Venezuela and Guyana committed to renouncing the use of force in resolving their territorial conflict and to maintaining Latin America as a zone of peace, avoiding any escalation in the disputed Essequibo region. However, both parties continue holding opposing views on how the conflict should be resolved. In April 2024, Venezuela, following a national referendum held on December 3, 2023, passed a law incorporating Essequibo into the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela as its 24th state.

By Naila Huseynova