THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Guyana told the United Nations’ highest court on Monday that 70% of its territory is at stake in a historic border dispute with Venezuela over a swath of jungle that is rich in resources.
The International Court of Justice is holding a week of hearings between the South American neighbors claiming ownership of the Essequibo region, which is rich in gold, diamonds, timber and other natural resources and is located close to massive offshore oil deposits.
“This has been a blight on our existence as a sovereign state from the very beginning,” Guyana Foreign Minister Hugh Hilton Todd told judges at the Great Hall of Justice in The Hague.
An 1899 decision by arbitrators from Britain, Russia and the United States drew the border along the Essequibo River largely in favor of Guyana. The U.S. represented Venezuela in part because the Venezuelan government had broken off diplomatic relations with Britain. Venezuela contends the Americans and Europeans conspired to cheat their country out of the land.
Venezuela has considered Essequibo its own since the Spanish colonial period when the region was within its boundaries. The country argues a 1966 agreement to resolve the dispute effectively nullified the 19th-century arbitration.
After years of fruitless mediation, Guyana in 2018 asked ICJ judges to affirm the 1899 border decision.
Pierre d’Argent, a member of Guyana’s legal team, called Venezuela’s arguments “lengthy, pointlessly controversial and confusing” and told judges they “are not new in any way and have already been rejected by the court.”
The two nations have returned to the court multiple times. Venezuela challenged the ICJ’s jurisdiction by claiming it could not hear the case without the United Kingdom, which was Guyana’s colonial master at the time of the original border decision. The court in 2020 ruled it had jurisdiction, enabling the case to proceed to this week’s hearings.
The court ordered Venezuela in 2025 to refrain from holding elections for officials who supposedly would oversee the region.
Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez wore a pin in the shape of the Essequibo region during recent state visits to the Caribbean islands of Grenada and Barbados.
Rodríguez was on her first official overseas trip following the capture of Nicolás Maduro by the U.S. in early January. The pin also has been increasingly worn by Venezuelan government officials, state television anchors, lawmakers and ruling party members since Maduro was removed from power in a stunning nighttime raid in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital.
The weeklong proceedings will continue on Wednesday with opening statements by Venezuela.
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Mike Corder contributed to this report.
