Essequibo: Which Guyanese territories does Venezuela want to annex and how did the conflict begin? world

The Essequibo region is located in the far west of Guyana, with an area of ​​159 thousand square kilometers, representing about 70% of the country’s territory. It is an area larger than the state of Ceara and England (See map below).

In 2015, large oil reserves were discovered in the region. It is estimated that Guyana has the equivalent of 11 billion barrels, a large portion of which is “offshore”, that is, at sea, near Essequibo. As a result of the oil boom, Guyana has become the South American country with the largest economic growth in recent years.

However, the area has become coveted by the Venezuelan government, which claims to have rights to the area. On December 3, a referendum to annex the state that Venezuelans called “Guiana Esquipa” was approved by a 95% majority of voters present. The turnout rate is equivalent to half of Venezuelan voters.

The vast Essequibo region is not inhabited by the major Guyanese ethnic groups that are most representative of the country. About 80% of the population living in this area are indigenous to this region, according to the country’s census.

Why is the region important?

In 1885, gold deposits were discovered in the Essequibo region, which is located within the Amazon rainforest, and also in the “Guiana Shields”, an exposed area of ​​the Earth’s crust containing many crystalline minerals and ancient rocks.

The place is rich in mineral resources, most notably gold, bauxite and uranium, and other natural resources, such as forest products and the water itself, both for consumption and for hydroelectric power generation. The territorial sea, in turn, is rich in oil, especially at its western end, near the Orinoco River delta in Venezuela.

Why does Venezuela think it has rights in the region?

The territory of Essequibo has been disputed between Venezuela and Guyana for more than a century. Since the end of the nineteenth century, it has been under Guyanese control. The region represents 70% of today’s territory of Guyana, and 125,000 people live there.

Guyana claims to own the territory because there is a report from 1899, issued in Paris, in which the current boundaries were determined. At that time, Guyana was a territory of the United Kingdom.

Both Guyana and Venezuela claim their rights to the territory based on international documents.

Venezuela claims that the territory belongs to it because it came in an agreement signed in 1966 with the United Kingdom itself, before the independence of Guyana, in which the arbitration ruling was canceled and the basis for a negotiated solution was laid.

In 2015, the dispute intensified with the discovery of oil fields in the region by the American company ExxonMobil.

Guyana took the matter to the International Court of Justice and the United Nations Security Council.

The referendum was only advisory in nature and therefore not automatically binding – that is, the result does not mean that the Venezuelan state is authorized to annex the region. But Caracas considered this another step towards controlling the region.

The result and the conduct of the referendum itself constitute a challenge to the decision of the International Court of Justice, the highest body in the United Nations to rule on issues of sovereignty between countries. On December 1, the court’s judges ruled unanimously that Venezuela could not take any steps to try to annex Essequibo.

However, Venezuela intends to send government representatives to the region to manage resources, especially minerals. The Venezuelan government has granted permission, without international consultation, to the state-owned oil company PDVSA to offer licenses for oil and gas exploration in the area.

What is Brazil’s position on this?