Venezuela’s authoritarian leadership has asked its people whether they should annex part of Guyana. The supposed outcome of the referendum: an overwhelming yes. It was initially unclear how the government wanted to proceed.
The people of Venezuela have confirmed their country’s claim to the resource-rich Essequibo region in neighboring Guyana in a referendum, according to the authoritarian government.
On Sunday, almost 96 percent of participants answered yes to the question of whether a new Venezuelan federal state called Guayana Esequiba should be created and its population should be given Venezuelan citizenship, as the electoral authority CNE announced in the evening (local time).
Maduro celebrates results
The turnout in the elections was therefore around 51 percent. President Nicolás Maduro celebrated the result as a victory for Venezuela in front of hundreds of supporters at Plaza Bolívar in the capital Caracas. It was initially unclear how the government wanted to proceed.
The United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday ordered Venezuela “to refrain from any action that would alter the current situation in the disputed territory.” The government of Guyana has described the referendum as a threat to security and peace. The approximately 160,000 square kilometer Essequibo area covers approximately two-thirds of Guyana’s territory.
Major oil discovery off the Atlantic coast
According to official information, all five questions in the referendum were answered yes, with a majority between 95.4 and 98.11 percent of the votes. One of these was whether Venezuela should reject the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in this case.
The current boundaries of the area were established in 1899 by an arbitration award from a tribunal in Paris, on the initiative of the US and Great Britain. Venezuela relies on a 1966 agreement with Britain – a few months before the then colony of British Guiana became independent. This provided a negotiated solution to the dispute. The border dispute worsened when large oil deposits were found off Essequibo’s Atlantic coast in 2015. Guyana, one of the poorest countries in South America, has granted production licenses to the American oil company Exxon Mobil.
Source: Krone
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