(CMR) The United Nations International Court of Justice has ordered Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to cease all efforts to take control of an oil-rich area in neighboring Guyana as Venezuelans go to the poll to decide what actions their government should take.
According to the Miami Herald, Venezuelans going to the polls Sunday will be asked to answer an unusually provocative question: Should their government be given a blank check to invade neighboring Guyana and wrest away three-quarters of its oil-rich territory?
The question will be on the ballot in a five-part referendum that, among other things, would grant Maduro special powers to invade Guyana and create a new Venezuelan state encompassing 74% of English-speaking Guyana’s current landmass. The new area would be called Guayana Esequiba.
The government of Nicolás Maduro is putting the query before voters, part of a century-old territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana that is raising tensions in the region and threatening to escalate into a shooting war.
Venezuela reactivated its claim on the area in recent years after the discovery of offshore oil and gas, with the maritime border between the two countries also in dispute.
The United Nations International Court of Justice said Friday that “pending a final decision in the case, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela shall refrain from taking any action which would modify the situation that currently prevails in the territory in dispute, whereby the Co-operative Republic of Guyana administers and exercises control over that area.”
Guyana argues that the upcoming referendum is illegal and would alter the rights and citizenship of more than 230,000 Guyanese in the region who have no ties to the Spanish-speaking country. Though the Court warned Maduro not to do anything to change the status quo, it did not outright say he could not hold the five-part vote, which was among the requests made by Guyana, Miami Herald reported.
The Miami Herald said some experts see the whole thing as a political ploy, but many Guyanese see the threat as real and fear, among other things, the loss of their citizenship.
“Clearly, Maduro has domestic constituencies in mind, but I think when you weigh the number of negatives of annexation, Maduro would be crazy to risk all of those negatives to take 74% of Guyana,” said Ivelaw Griffith, a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and a former vice-chancellor of the University of Guyana, who is a security expert in the region.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid