CARACAS (AP) 鈥� 鈥檚 acting President Delcy Rodr铆guez arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday where she will defend her country’s claim to a before the United Nations highest court in a dispute that has spanned decades.
The in The Hague is holding a series of hearings with the South American neighbors which 鈥� a territory of nearly 62,000 square miles rich in gold, diamonds, timber and other natural resources, located near .
Venezuela has considered Essequibo its own since the Spanish colonial period, when the jungle region fell within its boundaries. But an 1899 decision by arbitrators from Britain, Russia and the United States drew the border along the Essequibo River largely in favor of Guyana.
Venezuela argues that a 1966 agreement sealed in Geneva to resolve the dispute effectively nullified the 19th-century arbitration.
The final court hearing, with Rodr铆guez’s appearance, will take place on Monday. The court is likely to take months to issue a final and legally binding ruling in the case.
After landing at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, Rodr铆guez 鈥� who assumed power in January following a U.S. military operation that ousted Nicol谩s Maduro 鈥� said her country has “demonstrated at every historical stage what our territory has meant since we were born as a Republic.鈥�
The case of Essequibo was brought to the ICJ in 2018 by Guyana to confirm before international authorities that the 1899 ruling 鈥� and not the 1966 agreement 鈥� is the one drawing the border lines. Venezuela has warned that its participation in the hearings does not mean either consent to or recognition of the ICJ鈥檚 jurisdiction.
At the opening of the hearings, Guyanese Foreign Minister Hugh Hilton Todd told the international judges that the dispute 鈥渉as been a blight on our existence as a sovereign state from the beginning鈥� and indicated that 70% of Guyana鈥檚 territory is at stake.
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