Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro signs the Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba, April 3, 2024. Photo: Presidential Press.
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, promulgated the Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba, after its approval by the National Assembly.
“Today we receive an organic law ratified by the Supreme Court of Justice, and I can say with full knowledge of the facts, with all the powers that the Constitution grants me, that the decision of the December 3 referendum, now converted into an Organic Law of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, will be fulfilled in all its parts in the defense of Venezuela in international scenarios,” the president said on Wednesday, April 3, after putting his signature on the document.
After signing the law in the Federal Legislative Palace, President Maduro explained that the law consists of 39 articles, five transitional provisions, and two final provisions, among which he highlighted the articles referring to the incorporation of the state of Guayana Esequiba into Venezuela.
He further specified that the nullity of the Arbitration Award of 1899 is clearly, inexorably, and legally ratified, and that the Article 14 of the Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba implements the people’s response to question number 1 of the December 3 referendum that rejected the border fraudulently imposed by the British through the 1899 Award.
Moreover, Article 5 of the Organic Law ratifies that the Geneva Agreement of 1966 is the only valid legal instrument for reaching a practical and mutually acceptable solution to the Essequibo dispute, thus incorporating the response to question number 2 of the referendum.
The historical position of Venezuela regarding the controversy is expressed in Article 6 of the law, incorporating the positions of all the presidents of the Fourth Republic who defended the territory of Guayana Esequiba as Venezuelan territory, and those of the presidents Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro not recognizing the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as a proper instance to settle the controversy.
“There are 75 years of a solid, argued, sustained, fair, balanced, legal position at the level of international legality, based on the statute of the creation of the International Court of Justice,” President Maduro added. He stressed that starting from the government of President Isaías Medina Angarita, Venezuela has always maintained its just claim without any break.
The Chapter II of the Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba establishes the creation of state number 24, the state of Guayana Esequiba, within the political and territorial organization of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and establishes its limits, implementing the response to question 5 of the referendum.
“I am going to proceed with great pride, with a lot of love, with a lot of faith, and with a lot of commitment, to immediately sign and promulgate this binding and mandatory law, this organic law, that the National Assembly has approved,” President Maduro said after signing the document.
President of Guyana is ExxonMobil puppet
During his speech, President Maduro emphasized that the time of colonial domination, the time of subordination of Venezuela is over forever.
The Venezuelan president also criticized the president of Guyana for becoming a “puppet” of ExxonMobil, the British Empire, and the US Empire. He ratified that the Arbitration Award of 1899, which Guyanese President Irfan Ali is trying to uphold, is null, void, and anachronistic. “Venezuela does not recognize it and will never recognize it! “he emphasized.
“After having been face to face with kings, popes, presidents, and prime ministers, I had never felt so much satisfaction as I felt in defending Venezuela face to face against the president of Guyana who simply became a puppet of ExxonMobil, a puppet of the British empire, a puppet of the Southern Command,” President Maduro said.
“ExxonMobil, the Southern Command, and the president of Guyana are wrong about Venezuela—very wrong in their position of imperialist dispossession, in their warlike, threatening position,” he added.
President Maduro condemned the US empire for attacking from outside “a Venezuela that is living in peace, that is recovering, progressing economically, a Venezuela in constant public debate, exercising its freedom and sovereignty.”
Venezuela’s Defense Minister: Guyana’s Warmongering Rhetoric Continues
“Daily we are being attacekd from within by an extremist fascist right that has not been able to and will not be able to do more damage to this country,” he continued. “Venezuela is living in peace, it is recovering, progressing economically, and is exercising its freedoms, its sovereignty.”
He also warned that the US Southern Command and the CIA may have already installed secret military bases in the territory of Guayana Esequiba to plot attacks against the population of Tumeremo and the south and east of Venezuela, preparing for an escalation against Venezuela.
The president said that since Venezuela was a victim of the dispossession of its Guayana Esequiba, it was on December 3, 2023 that the Venezuelan people were summoned for the first time to decide the fate and future of Venezuela’s rights over Guayana Esequiba, “so that they could express themselves with all their sovereignty, with all their power.”
“The campaign on Guayana Esequiba was able to spread awareness and give a voice to those who had never had it on this issue; it was able to renew the patriotic sentiment of a peaceful people who never resigned themselves to having their Guayana Esequiba stripped from them,” Maduro noted.
Background
The Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba aims to establish the means and mechanisms for the defense of the territory of Guyana Esequiba, currently under occupation by the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, resulting from the invalid Arbitration Award of 1899 that had been imposed by the British Empire.
On March 26, President Maduro stated that after the organic nature of the law on Guayana Esequiba is ratified by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), some decrees will be issued to strengthen the fight for recovery of the territory.
“After signing it, we will activate a set of decrees based on the Organic Law to strengthen our country’s fight for the recovery of the Essequibo territory, because the Essequibo territory is Venezuelan,” he stated in an interview.
(Últimas Noticias) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SC
