The note published in the weekly newspaper La Razón of Sunday, November 5, 2023, No. 1485, entitled "Hugo, Guyana's witness in The Hague" by journalist Noel Gómez Herrera informs us that ".... the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, in a joint declaration with the President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, on February 19, 2004, in the city of Georgetown, manifested his consent on behalf of the Venezuelan government, for the mining exploitation in the territory in claim, "as long as it is for the benefit of its inhabitants", thus refuting the counterpart's statements regarding the granting of oil exploitation licenses in the Essequibo Territory", turning the supreme leader of the "Bolivarian Revolution" himself into an absent witness against the interests of Venezuela and in favor of Guyana in the territorial claim trial being carried out between both countries in the International Court of Justice.
Indeed, under the headline "Georgetown wields in The Hague Chávez-Jagdeo joint declaration of the year 2004", weekly La Razón indicates that: "The Government of Guyana, when challenging in the International Court of Justice the consultative referendum called by Nicolás Maduro, alleges that the delivery of oil licenses in the territory under claim has its origin in the consent publicly granted by President Hugo Chávez, on February 19, 2004, in the city of Georgetown, jointly with then President Bharrat Jagdeo" (our highlight).
But, could Chávez in his condition as President of the Republic, by his sole will, allow the use, for whatever purposes, of part of a territory considered Venezuelan, to another Nation? Definitely not. And the military did not remind him of this either, for which they are also co-responsible for the signature of that Joint Declaration with Guyana.
Nowhere does the Venezuelan Constitution give the President of the Republic such power. On the contrary, it expressly prohibits it: "Article 13: The national territory may never be ceded, transferred, leased, or in any way alienated, even temporarily or partially, to foreign States or other subjects of international law...". Furthermore, the President has the express obligation to protect the sovereignty of the territory: "Article 232: The President of the Republic...is obliged to ensure the guarantee of the rights and liberties of Venezuelans, as well as the independence, integrity, sovereignty of the territory and defense of the Republic....". On the other hand, the Constitution does not establish that the President consults the Venezuelans what is expressly established in the Constitution as his obligation.
Many of you will be saying "but they never respected the Constitution, starting with Chávez". True, but the territory did not belong to Chávez, nor does it now belong to Maduro and his regime of criminals, but to all Venezuelans, and the only incontrovertible reference to defend ourselves from what they are doing is that constitutional text.
In the Joint Declaration of Venezuela and Guyana, Hugo Chávez said, among other things, the following: "...I have made a commitment with President Jagdeo and with Guyana. First that the Venezuelan government will not oppose any project in this region that will benefit its inhabitants; direct benefit, as the President told me, such as a water project, roads, energy, agricultural projects..." (see in Spanish complete transcription of the Joint Declaration of the Presidents of Venezuela and Guyana, Hugo Chávez Frías and Bharrat Jagdeo respectively, on February 19, 2004, in the city of Georgetown, Guyana, in https://larazon.net/2023/09/19-de-febrero-de-2004-el-dia-que-hugo-chavez-entrego-el-esequibo-a-guyana/) (resaltado nuestro).
Could we say that this "magnanimity" of the Galactico, in 2004 with what did not belong to him, gave our territory to Guyana? In my opinion, definitely YES. It allowed nothing less than the OCCUPATION of the territory we are claiming, through projects, giving open permission to the government of Guyana to build roads, settlements with water and agricultural survival services in the Zone, not to mention the most important, "energy projects", giving the green light to what could perfectly be interpreted as the oil exploitation of the Reclaimed Zone.
The factual way of exercising sovereignty is by occupying a territory, which is why Guyana is already 20 years ahead of us. In other words, they have been working on the occupation of the Essequibo for two decades with the permission of Hugo Chávez Frías written in a Joint Declaration. No wonder Guyana is using that as proof of their illegitimate occupation in the International Court of Justice. And if we have become aware of this aberration, it is because the North American oil companies are making an important noise extracting oil for Guyana, within the framework of the US negotiations with the Maduro regime.
On the other hand, the Venezuelan State and its current administrators of the regime, who now intend to call a referendum on the Essequibo, have done the opposite in relation to the occupation of that territory, which is ours and which they claim to defend from the mouth outwards. On May 31, 2015, a group of Venezuelans, called Esequibanos because they were born in the Reclamation Zone, filed before the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice a Constitutional Protection action in order to demand citizenship as they are Venezuelans by birth. In this action, these Venezuelans demand "that the Venezuelan State implement an ID plan throughout the country so that the inhabitants of the Essequibo can obtain their ID and nationality as they are Venezuelans by birth, since they were born in a territory where Venezuela maintains its sovereignty in accordance with article 10 of the National Constitution. We must remember that the Essequibo is not only land and sea, it is its people". There they clearly denounce that:
"Public, notorious, communicational facts and administrative acts where the right to citizenship of persons born in the Guyana Esequiba, Esequibo Territory is ignored or denied, where the violation of human rights and discrimination against these Venezuelans in an excessive and continuous manner by public officials, both civilian and military, is clearly evidenced. It should be noted that those born in Guyana Esequiba or Esequibo Territory are victims of abuse, detentions, expropriation of their work property, humiliations and humiliations, in addition to exclusion from the educational, health, social protection, economic and especially in the moral and psychological aspect by the mere fact of not having a Venezuelan identification" (see in Spanish "Cedulación de esequibanos, una tarea pendiente, in http://esequibonuestro.blogspot.com/2015/06/cedulacion-de-esequibanos-una-tarea.html). As you will see, Chavez gave Guyana permission in 2004 for the development of the Essequibo territory, and on the other hand, the State that the regime administers since 1999 still denies those who were born there their condition of Venezuelans by birth. It is impossible to find a greater contradiction.
Once again, the regime intends to apply the strategy of "divide and rule" in an artful and manipulative way, trying to mean that whoever does not go to the December 3 referendum "is against" the recognition of the Zone in Reclamation as Venezuelan territory. From here I reject in the most forceful manner such interpretation. No government has the right to ask Venezuelans whether or not we should come out in defense of the status of the State of Zulia, or the State of Apure, or the State of Miranda, as Venezuelan territories, just as it does not have the right to ask about the status of the Essequibo territory. They HAVE THE CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGATION to defend the territory, and what they have done so far is to give them permission for its occupation.
Dubenson Manzanilla, expert on the subject of the Essequibo, in an extraordinary work on the subject, expresses the following: "Maduro intends with this referendum a countermeasure to distort the recent primary election organized by the opposition, where María Corina Machado was widely victorious. We know that he intends to disregard the ICJ and that he contemplates the adventure of taking the Essequibo by force, as a false action of nationalism, in the best style of Leopoldo Gatieri with the Falklands war. Apart from his pretensions and knowing that the referendum will have no incidence in CIJ, I consider, as someone who has been promoting for many years the interest in the recovery of the Essequibo, that this consultation represents a great opportunity to unify a national conscience around the preservation of our territorial integrity, which in itself has already been violated by the dictatorship of Maduro, by ceding spaces to narco-guerrilla groups of another country, such as the FARC and the ELN... " (see in Spanish PanamPost, El despojo del Esequibo no puede ocurrir otra vez, in https://panampost.com/editor/2023/11/06/el-despojo-del-esequibo-no-puede-ocurrir-otra-vez/).
We cannot fall into the manipulation of the regime. Far from unifying Venezuelans "around the preservation of our territorial integrity", the effect will be totally the opposite. Once again we will fall into their divisive game if Venezuelans do not unify in rejecting such a pretension, by not attending this referendum as one single person. The solution to this controversy must be peaceful and in tune with International Law. But that is not what the regime is demonstrating by ignoring the path of the International Court of Justice. As the expert indicates "...it is imperative the formation of a front of Venezuelan experts in international law and their necessary pronouncements before international organizations" to address this situation. But as things stand, it seems that first it will be indispensable to remove the criminals from power, who aggravated this situation in a superlative manner, with the surrender of the Essequibo by Hugo Chávez Frías.
Caracas, November 6, 2023
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TIC’s & Derechos Humanos,
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