Guyana called on global legislators to condemn new moves by Venezuela to gain control of the Essequibo region that makes up about two-thirds of the CARICOM country and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens.
Addressing the 148th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly here, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, said that while time would not permit delegates “at this conference to condemn the actions of Venezuela collectively, there is still much to be done.
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“I appeal to each of you to use the theme of this conference and the platform of your respective Parliaments to condemn the actions of Venezuela; demand compliance with international law; and call for diplomacy to be used as a bridge for peace and understanding.
“This is not a favor to Guyana, but it is discharging a duty we owe to ourselves and indeed the world, if we are to be true to the founding principles of this organization,” Nandlall said.
He told the conference that parliaments across the world bring together the largest number of the most powerful elected leaders on the planet and that this “mighty army can easily be the greatest global human agency of change, including, procuring lasting peace and understanding.
“The IPU, being the largest global association of parliaments, with its grounding principles that dialogue is central to the peaceful resolution of conflicts, is ideally poised to achieve this objective. “
But he said unfortunately “we failed to harness this energy and marshall our thoughts to condemn the worst human rights tragedy in the world – Gaza and the lack of democracy in Venezuela.
“These horrendous events, although occurring on opposite sides of the globe, together manifest the deadly havoc that armed conflicts wreak and the social disorder and human sufferings that the absence of democracy produces,” the Attorney General said, adding that “more than 30,000 are dead in Gaza and nearly eight million refugees have fled Venezuela”.
He told the IPU assembly that there is another dimension of Venezuela that continues to claim two-thirds of the sovereign territory of Guyana unlawfully.
“This claim by Venezuela was finally and conclusively settled by Arbitration in 1899. Venezuela accepted and acted upon this Arbitral Award for six consecutive decades thereafter. It was not until in the early 1960s when Guyana was about to gain independence from Great Britain that Venezuela made the outrageous claims that the Arbitral Award was unlawful.”
Nandlall said that the South American country continues to make “this outrageous claim to date without producing a scintilla of evidence to substantiate.
“Right here in Geneva, in 1966, Venezuela signed an Agreement with Guyana, inter alia, empowering the United Nations Secretary-General to take steps to resolve the controversy. In 2018, exercising those powers, the UN Secretary-General referred the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) where it remains pending.
“Thus far, Venezuela has refused to accept the court’s jurisdiction or to be bound by any order the court makes. Venezuela has threatened physical invasion and in December 2023 moved a referendum to annex two-thirds of Guyana’s sovereign territory. The ICJ has issued interim measures restraining Venezuela from taking further steps in its declared intention.”
Nandlall said that every major international organization in the Western Hemisphere has condemned Venezuela’s actions and has called upon Venezuela to respect the jurisdiction of the ICJ, to comply with international law, and to employ diplomacy in resolving this alleged dispute. CMC
