Venezuela approved this week legislation for the annexation of the Essequibo territory, part of a historic dispute with Guyana.
The National Assembly controlled by Nicolás Maduro has formally created the state of Guayana Esequiba, which last December the Venezuelan president had already ordered to be included in the official maps of the country.
It is a jungle region of about 160,000 square kilometers that is de facto administered by Guyana, which has already issued a statement expressing its concern about the new step that Venezuela has taken and calling on the international community to intervene.
The Organic Law for the Defense of Essequibo establishes that “while the internal situation of the entity is resolved”, the head of State of Venezuela will elect the governor and the National Assembly will assume the legislative functions of the territory.
The border conflict with the neighboring country advances at the same time as the electoral schedule in Venezuela and the law also responds to that situation.
Article 25 of the law indicates that all candidates for elected office who have supported Guyana's position may be disqualified from competing, which represents a new filter with which Maduro and the Chavismo in power will remove rivals in the on the way to the presidential elections on July 28 and in successive processes scheduled for 2025 and 2026 in which new deputies, governors and mayors will be elected.
In an extreme case, the escalation of the international conflict—as some analysts have warned—would allow Maduro to declare a state of exception in which he can postpone the elections he reaches at his lowest popularity, with a rejection of at least 80 % of the population, according to most surveys.
The rule was approved on Thursday, the same day that the deadline for registering applications for the Presidency opened and was sent to the Supreme Court to validate its constitutionality, to which the entity responded affirmatively in an express ruling issued in less than 24 hours.
The approval of this law occurred two days after the head of Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, proposed another legislative project to “severely” punish “traitors” and with it opens a new front to discretionally persecute those who They disagree with the Government.
At the end of last year, Maduro called Venezuelans to a referendum on the creation of a new province on the Essequibo territory — twice the size of Guyana itself.
In the consultation he also endorsed ignoring the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice to which Guyana took the dispute in 2018 and in which Venezuela should defend itself next April.
That was a political response to the enormous opposition mobilization for the primaries in which María Corina Machado was chosen, later disqualified and this Friday replaced by Corina Yoris in consensus with the members of the Unitary Platform.
Chavismo used Essequibo to measure its electoral machinery and claimed to have obtained 10,000,000 votes, although the official results have not been published so far and many of the voting centers looked desolate that day.
Thus a regional conflict was ignited, with exchanges of statements and military mobilizations on both sides of the disputed borders, in which Brazil, the United States, Caricom and Celac had to mediate.
On December 14, Maduro and his Guyanese counterpart Irfaan Ali agreed in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to tone down the hostilities and resume diplomatic channels to resolve the conflict.
Now Guyana once again calls on the international community to stop Venezuela's "expansionist intentions."
The Guyanese Foreign Ministry has warned that its sovereignty is being violated, as well as the rulings of the International Court of Justice that urge the parties to avoid actions that aggravate the conflict and the Argyle pact itself, sponsored by President Lula Da Silva.
For several years, however, the English-speaking country has granted concessions to transnational companies for oil exploration and exploitation in the waters of the disputed territory and has strengthened its relationship with the United States on issues of military cooperation.
Venezuela has also accused the violation of last December's agreements, but for other reasons.
Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and Foreign Minister Yvan Gil have described the recent visit to Guyana by William Burns, director of the US intelligence agency, as a “clear threat.”
“In the history of the CIA there is not a single positive milestone in his file: only death, violence and destruction,” Rodríguez wrote on her social networks.
“Guyana flagrantly violates International Law and persists in ignoring the Argyle Agreement.
"Venezuela will not allow itself to be intimidated and will persist on its path of legality and peace."
In this controversy of more than two centuries, Guyana defends the border established in the Arbitration Award of 1899, which places within its limits a territory that since 1777 was on the maps of the Captaincy General of Venezuela, long before independence from Spain. .
Venezuela considers this document to be rigged and is based on the 1966 Geneva Accords to demand a diplomatic resolution of the conflict which, for the Guyanese Government, is a path that has already been exhausted after the failures of the efforts of several good officials of the United Nations. , recognized by Secretary General Antonio Guterres himself, who referred the case to the International Court of Justice, which must determine the validity of the award and may then establish the border.
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