Update: Venezuela responds to a statement by the Guyana government.

CARACAS, Venezuela, CMC – Venezuela Tuesday said it rejects the “offensive statements” made by the Guyana government regarding the upcoming consultative referendum on the Essequibo, which the South American country continues to claim as part of its territory.

“The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects the infamous and offensive statements of the Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, regarding the consultative referendum scheduled for December 3, 2023, which are loaded with deep contempt for the people Venezuelan, its Bolivarian history and its right to express itself, democratically, in matters of special national importance,” Caracas said in a statement.

Earlier, Georgetown said it is concerned that Venezuela’s December 3 referendum could lay the groundwork for annexing the county of Essequibo, which Caracas has been claiming belongs to it.

In a statement, the Guyana government said it had taken “careful note” of the issuance by the National Electoral Council of Venezuela of five questions to be asked in the national referendum.

It said among other questions, all of which are intended to further Venezuela’s “unlawful and unfounded claim to more than two-thirds of Guyana’s national territory, question five is the most pernicious.

“It brazenly seeks the approval of the Venezuelan people of the creation of a new Venezuelan State consisting of Guyana’s Essequibo Region, which would be incorporated into the national territory of Venezuela, and the granting of Venezuelan citizenship to the population.”

Guyana said this “amounts to nothing less than the annexation of Guyana’s territory, in blatant violation of the most fundamental rules of the UN Charter, the OAS Charter, and general international law.

“Such a seizure of Guyana’s territory would constitute the international crime of aggression,” the Irfaan Ali government said, adding that it “categorically rejects any attempt to undermine the territorial integrity of the sovereign State of Guyana.”

But Caracas, in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, said that Guyana’s statements “once again, are being drafted by the law firm employed by Exxon Mobil, a company that has corrupted the Latin American and Caribbean values of this nation and has bought off the Guyanese political class, dragging them into erratic actions, contrary to the Public International Law, with the objectives of appropriating energy resources that do not belong to it and attempting to threaten the peace and stability of Venezuela.

“Contrary to this disastrous anti-sovereign practice, the National Assembly of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in full exercise of its powers, has decided to consult the people of Venezuela, the main lines of legal, diplomatic, and political actions, to enforce the legitimate rights over the territory of Guayana Esequiba.’

Venezuela said the “insistent refusal to diplomatic dialogue” by President Irfaan Ali of Guyana “threatens a dangerous escalation to a large-scale conflict, promoted by the United States Southern Command.

“Venezuela, by international law and the principles enshrined in the 1966 Geneva Agreement, insists on urging the Guyanese government to desist from its unilateral and subordinate actions to transnational capital and seriously undertake direct negotiations that allow for a practical and mutually acceptable between the parties, which resolves the territorial dispute, as was agreed with the United Kingdom of Great Britain, just before the birth of Guyana as an independent nation.”

Georgetown said it “finds abhorrent that the Essequibo region, which forms part of the territory of Guyana by the 1899 Arbitral Award that demarcated the boundaries of the States of Venezuela and then British Guiana, should be ‘created’ into a State within Venezuela.

“Further, the Government rejects the internationally unlawful act to put forward the ‘granting of citizenship and Venezuelan identity cards by the Geneva Agreement and international law.’ It is by way of the Geneva Agreement and the principles of international law that the question of the validity of the Arbitral Award of 1899 has been put before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). “

Guyana said that the ICJ has ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear this case. Guyana has repeatedly encouraged Venezuela to participate in the case.

” The people of Guyana remain resolute against threats to their country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Neither the Government nor the people of one country have the right in international law to seize, annex, or take the territory of another country. International law prohibits this.”

Guyana said it wants the international community to pay attention to “the actions being carried out by the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela which have the potential to incite violence and threaten the peace and security of the State of Guyana and by extension the Caribbean region.”