Border controversy…Venezuela to refuse jurisdiction of Int’l Court- report
With the United Nations making one last ditch attempt to arrive at a solution over the Guyana and Venezuela controversy, it appears that latter is not prepared to recognize the jurisdiction of International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The Stena Carron drill ship in the waters of Guyana that Venezuela is also claiming.
The matter could be handed over to the ICJ as early as next year if the Good Offices process that has been triggered by Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, fails to find a workable recourse by December 31.
A scathing editorial in Venezuela’s El Nacional on Sunday has thrown light on that country’s game plan to tackle the issue.
Headlined “Will all roads lead to The Hague?” the article said that Venezuela’s claim is in danger.
“That operation would be a triumph for Guyana, who always advocated going to the ICJ, and a setback for Venezuela, which for almost a century has consistently refused to submit its territory and boundary issues to courts and others,” the article said.
Guterres, on February 27, named Norwegian lawyer and diplomat, Dag Nylander, as his Good Officer to Georgetown and Caracas to handle the controversy.
Venezuela has also preferred this course.
The article noted that the controversy would come at a time when US giant Exxon confirmed oil discoveries on the continental shelf under Atlantic waters off the Essequibo.
Venezuela seemed to be paying close attention to the oil find.
The report said that the Payara-1 and Liza fields would contain more than one billion barrels of oil. “Analysts at Tudor, Holt, Pickering & Co. estimate up to 2 billion barrels, which, if valued at about US$50, could mean US$100billion for Guyana in 20 years.”
The article noted that the centre of analysis of the Venezuelan Council of International Relations (Covri) has stressed in a statement that “the Secretary-General of the UN has no competence to refer the dispute to the ICJ” and that the judicial settlement and arbitration methods should be excluded.
It was noted that the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry has already advanced the arguments that it will refuse to go to the ICJ.
Minister Delcy Rodriguez stressed that Venezuela “ratifies its commitment to the negotiated solution of this controversy.”
For Eloy Torres, former ambassador and professor of international relations, it is a pointless discussion whether Venezuela is right or wrong. “We cannot recover the whole territory. We have to make an effort to recover an exit to the Atlantic and not be locked up: we are a country that exports oil and imports food. “
The article argued that it would be a good idea for Venezuela to refuse to submit to the jurisdiction of the ICJ.
The controversy suddenly erupted in May 2015 after ExxonMobil announced that it has struck a significant deposit of oil. A number of other wells in the area have confirmed that find was indeed large. Production is set to start in 2020.
With a new Coalition Government just about to be sworn in, Venezuela issued new maps which included the offshore area that ExxonMobil had found the oil as belonging to that Spanish-speaking country.
Guyana has complained to CARICOM, and several organizations and has even taken the matter to the floors of the United Nations General Assembly.
Venezuela is claiming almost all of Essequibo in the century-old issue.