Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodriguez said Saturday she is traveling to The Hague to represent her country before the International Court of Justice in a dispute over the oil-rich Essequibo region.<\/p>\n
“It has fallen to me to travel in the coming hours to defend our homeland,” Rodriguez said in a televised speech, referring to the territory claimed by both Venezuela and neighboring Guyana, which currently administers it.<\/p>\n
It would be her first trip outside the Caribbean since assuming power following the capture of strongman Nicolas Maduro by US forces in January.<\/p>\n
The UN court has in recent days been hearing from representatives of Venezuela and Guyana over the centuries-old dispute that has at times threatened to spill over into military action. The hearings, which began on May 4, will conclude on Monday.<\/p>\n
The two countries have been wrangling over the region since the 1800s, with the conflict intensifying after ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world.<\/p>\n
The Essequibo region comprises more than two-thirds of Guyana.<\/p>\n
Neighboring Venezuela, however, claims the territory, which\u00a0runs roughly along the western side of an eponymous river over an area of 160,000 square kilometres (62,000 square miles).<\/p>\n
ICJ judges have been asked to rule on the validity of the border established between the two countries in 1899 under British colonial rule.<\/p>\n
Venezuela argues that the border should be drawn in accordance with a later document from 1966 signed before Guyana gained its independence.<\/p>\n
It says that the Essequibo River, located much farther east than the current border, is the natural frontier, as it was in 1777 under Spanish colonial rule.<\/p>\n
Long under US sanctions, Rodriguez saw them lifted in April as part of a rapprochement with Washington, which saw Caracas grant US companies access to Venezuela’s oil riches.<\/p>\n
People appearing before the ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, benefit from special legal protections.<\/p>\n
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