Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro at an electoral event in La Guaira state, May 21, 2025. Photo: Venezuela's Presidential Press.
“This Sunday, May 25, the people will elect for the first time in history the governor, deputies of the National Assembly, and members of the Legislative Councils for Guayana Esequiba,” the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, said on Wednesday, May 21.
He emphasized that the Venezuelan state’s will to safeguard its historical territorial rights over Guayana Esequiba is unwavering.
In this regard, the Venezuelan president called his Guyanese counterpart Irfaan Ali and company “slave foremen of Exxon Mobil.”
Earlier, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladímir Padrino López highlighted that there is an imperialist plan to take the Essequibo territory from Venezuela “by force.”
He made reference to recent statements issued by the government of Guyana about alleged violent actions against its military personnel “in the de facto line along the Cuyuní River. This has already happened twice and has been thoroughly investigated by the Attorney General’s Office, a serious investigation.”
Padrino López said that this a deliberate act fabricated “within the walls of the US Southern Command and the CIA to provoke Venezuela, to present it and project it before the international community as an aggressor state,” and urged everyone not to fall for provocations.
“There is a deliberate plan to take away the Essequibo by force, and of course, we are going to be vigilant for false flags and maneuvers and manipulations of the truth to make us look like a truly aggressor state before the international community, the big aggressor State against a smaller State,” he warned.
He stressed that Venezuela has never been an aggressor against any nation. “Historically, we did not leave our borders if not to give freedom, to project freedom, consensus, integration among nations, brotherhood, to form emerging blocks of geopolitical power in the world,” the minister remarked. “That is what Venezuela does with its Bolivarian diplomacy of peace, never to attack or dispossess. We have no imperialist blood of dispossession; on the contrary, we are anti-imperialist.”
Venezuela rejects ICJ’s demand of not holding elections in Guayana Esequiba
The government of Venezuela categorically condemned the pronouncement of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in relation to the “abusive and interventionist provisional measures” requested by Guyana against the electoral process to elect authorities of the Venezuelan state of Guayana Esequiba.
In a statement, the Venezuelan government emphasized that Venezuela “does not recognize and will never recognize the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice nor will it abide by any decision emanating from it to settle the territorial dispute over Guyana Esequiba, in a process that has been rigged since its inception and manipulated by anti-Venezuelan corporate interests that have nothing to do with justice.”
The statement reaffirmed that the territorial dispute is to be settled by the Geneva Agreement of 1966, a legally binding instrument that established the obligation of the parties to resolve the territorial dispute through a practical and mutually acceptable settlement.
“Additionally, nothing in international law allows the International Court of Justice to interfere in matters that are exclusive to the domestic law of Venezuela, nor to try to prohibit a sovereign act, organized within the framework of its participatory political system and based on its Constitution and national legislation,” the text highlighted.
Guyana Threatens to Arrest Venezuelans Who Vote in Essequibo on May 25
On May 1, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) unanimously reaffirmed its provisional measures granted to Guyana in December 2023 and ordered Venezuela to refrain from holding elections in the Essequibo region.
“Once again, Guyana’s position has prevailed,” Guyanese President Irfaan Ali said at that time. “Once again, Guyana’s position has been shown to be in accordance with international law. The government of Guyana welcomes this decision.”
Nevertheless, Venezuela will hold elections in the state of Guayana Esequiba on May 25.
Venezuela questions ICJ’s jurisdiction
The dispute over the Essequibo intensified after the discovery of oil deposits in the region by the US-based oil multinational ExxonMobil in 2015. Guyana filed a case before the ICJ in 2018, asking for recognition of the illegal “Arbitration Award” of 1899 by which Britain had stolen the Essequibo region from Venezuela. However, Venezuela questions the jurisdiction of the ICJ and recognizes the Geneva Agreement 1966 as the only mechanism with which to settle the dispute.
On December 3, 2023, Venezuela held a referendum in which it consulted the population on the creation of a new state in the Essequibo and the granting of Venezuelan citizenship to its inhabitants. The “Yes” option received more than 90% of votes in that referendum, and accordingly, Guayana Esequiba was constitutionally recognized as the 24th state of Venezuela, changing its status from the earlier “zone under claim.”
(Últimas Noticias) by Carlos Eduardo Sánchez
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SL
