Al Jazeera<\/a> reports.<\/p>\nThe ICJ has been hearing arguments in the long-running territorial dispute between Venezuela and neighbouring Guyana over the oil-rich Essequibo region, which currently makes up roughly two-thirds of Guyana\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n
At the center of the case is whether the existing border established in 1899 by arbitrators from Britain, Russia and the United States remains legally valid, or whether a later 1966 Geneva Agreement \u2014 signed before Guyana gained independence \u2014 supersedes that ruling.<\/p>\n
Venezuela argues the original arbitration was fraudulent and claims American and European officials colluded to deprive Caracas of territory it says rightfully belongs to Venezuela.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The United States represented Venezuela during part of the original arbitration process because diplomatic ties between Venezuela and Britain had broken down.<\/p>\n
The dispute has taken on greater geopolitical significance since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil reserves near Essequibo in 2008, transforming Guyana into one of the world\u2019s fastest-growing oil producers.<\/p>\n
Venezuela rejects ICJ authority<\/p>\n
During hearings this week, Venezuelan representative Samuel Reinaldo Moncada Acosta reiterated Caracas\u2019 rejection of the court\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuyana presents itself as the true, legitimate heir to British and Dutch territories, but the reality is that it is the beneficiary of colonial dispossession, formalized through fraudulent arbitration. The Geneva Agreement seeks to correct this century-old injustice,\u201d Moncada told the court.<\/p>\n
He added that Venezuela considers the ICJ\u2019s jurisdiction to have been \u201cerroneously imposed\u201d in a 2020 ruling and argued that the Geneva Agreement established a framework for a negotiated political settlement instead of judicial arbitration.<\/p>\n
Guyana, meanwhile, has asked the court to reaffirm the validity of the 1899 border settlement and accused Venezuela of threatening regional stability through its territorial claims.<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez, who previously served as Maduro\u2019s vice president, became acting president after Maduro was apprehended and flown to the United States earlier this year.<\/p>\n
She had long been under U.S. sanctions, though restrictions were reportedly lifted following her appointment as interim leader. Officials attending ICJ proceedings are generally granted diplomatic protections during court appearances.<\/p>\n
The ICJ is expected to take several months before issuing a final and legally binding ruling in the case.<\/p>\n
By Nazrin Sadigova\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venezuela\u2019s acting President Delcy Rodriguez has left the country for the first time since the ousting of Nicol\u00e1s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4388,4129,4393,4389,4392,4387,4391,4390,4386,42],"class_list":{"0":"post-10283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-hague","8":"tag-analysis-of-azerbaijan","9":"tag-azerbaijan","10":"tag-baku","11":"tag-important-news-of-azerbaijan","12":"tag-international-experts","13":"tag-interviews","14":"tag-interviews-with-azerbaijani-analysts","15":"tag-news-from-baku","16":"tag-news-of-azerbaijan","17":"tag-the-hague"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}