In its resolution, approved unanimously by the judges, the highest court of the UN also notified that Caracas “should refrain from taking any action that could modify the situation that currently prevails in the disputed territory” and that “Guyana administers and exercises control over that area”.

Caracas and Georgetown have maintained a controversy over this territorial space of almost 160,000 square kilometers for more than a century and in the last few weeks it has escalated with the denunciation by the Venezuelan side of tenders to transnational oil companies in undemarcated waters.

The Bolivarian Republic called for a popular consultation at the end of September which will take place next Sunday with five questions, which will set the strategy to be followed by the Bolivarian State on the disputed area.

Last October 30, Guyana requested the ICJ provisional measures to suspend the consultative referendum and three of its questions under the arguments that with this step Venezuela intends to abandon the case presented to the Court by its neighbor, in March 2018.

The Guyanese authorities saw in the consultation a threat to what they consider their territorial space and denounced that Caracas seeks instead unilateral measures to “resolve” the dispute through the “annexation and integration” of the area in question.

Venezuela reaffirmed on countless occasions that the ICJ lacks jurisdiction to address this dispute, which was dismissed by the Court in December 2020 when it considered in a judgment that it did have jurisdiction over Guyana’s request regarding the Arbitral Award of 1899.

The Venezuelan authorities consider that the Paris judgment is null and void, since they consider that it is vitiated by nullity and is contrary to the Constitution and national laws.

As part of the campaign promoted throughout the country, which united all sectors of the political and social life of the country, and which concludes this Friday, the Government and other institutions of the State showed documents that attribute to the Guayana Essequiba as part of their jurisdiction.

Next Sunday, more than 20 million voters are summoned to the polls to participate in the referendum, after the National Electoral Council called for a simulation on November 19, which, according to its authorities, was a complete success.

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