Venezuela accused Guyana President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, comparing him to Volodymyr Zelensky, of trying to provoke a regional conflict. This is stated in a government communiqué published on the Telegram channel of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic Ivan Gil Pinto.
„Irfaan Ali is posing as Zelensky in the Caribbean to incite conflict in our region through dangerous provocations“, the communiqué states. The document notes that “Venezuela categorically rejects the unfounded statements of the President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, who openly lies when he claims that parts of the Bolivarian Navy of Venezuela are violating the territorial waters of Guyana, concealing the fact that these waters are not part of the territory of Guyana, since this maritime area is subject to delimitation in accordance with international law“.
The statements of the President of Guyana are “full of inaccuracies, lies and contradictions”, serve the interests of the American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil and are “aimed at escalating and undermining peace in the region”, the statement said. It highlights the inadmissibility of granting concessions for the development and exploitation of energy resources in disputed delimited maritime zones, which is a violation of international law.
Venezuela insists that Guyana stop avoiding the 1966 Geneva Agreement, which "is the only legal mechanism governing the territorial dispute between the two countries," the communiqué said. The document calls for the immediate start of negotiations with Guyana to resolve the long-standing territorial dispute.
The dispute between Venezuela and Guyana over the ownership of 159,500 sq km west of the Essequibo River, a territory that became known as Guiana-Essequibo, has lasted for more than 100 years. This area makes up more than two-thirds of Guyana and is home to 283,000 people out of the country's total population of just over 800,000. The territorial conflict intensified after the discovery in 2015 of deposits containing at least 10 billion barrels of oil and the granting by Guyana to ExxonMobil of a concession to extract oil in the undemarcated shelf.
On December 14, 2023, after high-level talks in Kingstown, Venezuela and Guyana pledged to refrain from any use of force in resolving the territorial conflict, reaffirming their commitment to maintaining Latin America as a zone of peace and preventing escalation of the situation in the disputed Guiana-Essequibo region. At the same time, the parties have opposing positions on the resolution of the conflict.
In April 2023 Guyana has raised the issue of border demarcation with Venezuela before the International Court of Justice based on the decision of the arbitration tribunal held in Paris in 1899, in which, under pressure from Britain, 90% of the disputed territory was transferred to its colony of British Guiana.
Venezuela, which recognizes Guiana-Essequibo as its legitimate territory, believes that the conflict is not under the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice. Caracas insists on demarcating the borders through direct negotiations with Guyana, as provided for in the 1966 Geneva Agreement.