Guyanese President Irfaan Ali (right of center) stood next to US President Donald Trump (center) during the Shield of the Americas event in Doral, Florida, on March 7, 2026. Photo: Reuters/File photo.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—The government of Venezuela has described the recent statements of Guyanese President Irfaan Ali regarding the Essequibo territory as “provocative and delusional,” and has categorically rejected his claims that Essequibo belongs to his country in a statement published by Foreign Affairs Minister Yván Gil.
The Venezuelan response, published this Wednesday, May 27, emphasizes that Ali’s statements “constitute a falsification of historical and legal truth.” It highlights that “the discussion regarding the validity or invalidity of the 1899 Paris Arbitration Award was settled by the parties with the signing of the 1966 Geneva Agreement between Venezuela, the UK, and what was then British Guiana, now the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.”
Gil reiterated that Venezuela does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to resolve the territorial dispute. As a result, Guyana “has the obligation to sit face to face with Venezuela and negotiate a mutually agreeable solution directly, in accordance with International Law and the mechanisms established in the 1966 Geneva Agreement.”
Ali claimed that the Essequibo territory, disputed with Venezuela, “is and will remain Guyanese,” during the celebrations of the country’s 60th anniversary of independence. “The Essequibo belongs to Guyana. It has never been Venezuelan. Nor Spanish,” Ali declared, referring to the 1899 Arbitral Award—which defined the border—as the basis for Guyana’s legal position, despite historical evidence showing it was a took of the British empire to dispossess Venezuelan territory.
Venezuela Defends Geneva Agreement as Only Tool to Resolve Essequibo Dispute at ICJ
Guyana brought the case before the ICJ in 2018 in violation of the 1966 Geneva Agreement, seeking confirmation of the legal validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award despite its explicit nullification by Article 1 of the 1966 Geneva Agreement.
Below, you can read the full unofficial translation of the Venezuelan government’s statement:
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects the provocative and delusional statements issued by the President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, from the territory of Guyana Esequiba, an area under his administration as a result of the fraudulent dispossession of historically Venezuelan territory carried out by the United Kingdom.
The Guyanese president’s claims constitute a falsification of historical and legal truth. The debate regarding the validity or invalidity of the 1899 Paris Arbitration Award was settled by the parties with the signing of the 1966 Geneva Agreement between Venezuela, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and what was then British Guiana, now the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
Venezuela has made it absolutely clear, and has recently reiterated this before the International Court of Justice itself, that it does not and will not recognize the Court’s jurisdiction to resolve this territorial dispute. Venezuela has never consented to the Court hearing the claim unilaterally filed by Guyana, in blatant violation of the spirit and purpose of the Geneva Agreement, the only valid and current legal instrument for resolving the border dispute through a practical, satisfactory, and mutually acceptable solution.
Consequently, Guyana has an obligation to sit down face-to-face with Venezuela and negotiate directly a solution in accordance with International Law and the mechanisms established in the 1966 Geneva Agreement.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela reaffirms that it will never renounce its historical rights over the Essequibo region and will continue to defend them through the appropriate diplomatic, political, and legal channels.
Caracas, May 27, 2026.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/AU
