Will the Border Dispute Between Guyana and Venezuela Ever Be Resolved ?

Hague, Dec 18 (AFP/APP):The UN’s top court on Friday ruled that it had jurisdiction in a border dispute between Guyana and Venezuela that dates back more than a century and has flared up again with the discovery of oil.

The decision means the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague will now hold full hearings on the merits of the overall case, a process that could take years.

Caracas has been pressing a historic claim to Guyana’s Essequibo region, which encompasses two-thirds of the former British colony since US oil giant Exxon Mobil discovered crude off its coast in 2015.

Guyana maintains that valid land borders were set in 1899 by an arbitration court decision in Paris, a decision it’s South American neighbor Venezuela has never recognized.

In 2018 United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres referred the row to the ICJ, which rules on disputes between UN member countries. Venezuela refused to accept that the court had a mandate to get involved, and has refused to attend any hearings so far.

But ICJ president Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf announced on Friday that judges had ruled by 12-4 that the court could deal with the matter. “The court concludes that it has jurisdiction to entertain Guyana’s claims concerning the validity of the 1899 Award about the frontier between British Guyana and Venezuela,” the court said in its ruling.

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