Caracas contends that the Essequibo River to the east of the area is the pure border between the 2 nations, as declared in 1777 beneath Spanish rule, and that Britain wrongly appropriated Venezuelan lands within the nineteenth century.
Guyana, nevertheless, asserts the border was set within the British colonial period and was confirmed in 1899 by a courtroom of arbitration. It says the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’s high judicial physique, has validated this discovering.
Guyana had requested the ICJ to dam the referendum. However whereas the courtroom on Friday urged Caracas to take no motion which may have an effect on the disputed territory, it didn’t point out the measure.
FIVE QUESTIONS
The referendum covers 5 questions, together with proposals for the creation of a Venezuelan province to be known as “Guyana Essequibo”, giving the inhabitants Venezuelan citizenship, in addition to a name to reject the ICJ’s jurisdiction.
The Maduro authorities expects an awesome “sure” vote.
The referendum “will in all probability produce the consequence desired by Maduro”, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stated from Dubai, the place he’s attending the COP28 setting convention. However “I hope good sense will prevail”.
In Venezuela, Maria Corina Machado, an opposition politician who hopes to run in opposition to Maduro in subsequent yr’s election, has known as the referendum a “distraction”.
And in Guyana, some locals performed down the vote.
“The referendum might be vital for them, for Venezuela – not for us,” stated Dilip Singh, a businessman who lives within the disputed area.
“I grew up in Essequibo,” he stated, including, “The Spanish have by no means occupied it – not at any time in our historical past … now it’s unbiased, and it’ll at all times be so.”
