Venezuela has made a submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its border case with Guyana. The submission is its counter-memorial on the merits of the case concerning the Arbitral Award of 3 October 1899 (Guyana v. Venezuela).
This case, filed by Guyana in March 2018, seeks the Court’s decision on the validity of the Arbitral Award which determined the land boundary between the two countries more than a century ago. The Court has already ruled that it has jurisdiction over the controversy and will decide the issue on the merits.
Minister for People’s Power for Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, Yvan Gil, announced the counter-memorial submission via X (formerly Twitter) on April 8, stating “Venezuela informs the presentation, before the [ICJ], of the document containing the solid truth and the official position, in relation to the historical and current bases of its sovereign right over Guayana Esequiba.”
Guyana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation also acknowledged the submission in an April 8 press release, stating “Guyana has repeatedly called on Venezuela to participate fully in the judicial proceedings and comply with the Court’s rulings, and therefore welcomes Venezuela’s submissions on the substantive issues that the Court will ultimately decide.”
With the submissions of both countries now before the Court, Guyana said the ICJ will be able to take all arguments and evidence into account and issue a more informed judgment, which will be final and binding on both parties.
Even after the Court ruled that the case is admissible and that it has jurisdiction, Venezuela has often said that it does not accept the Court’s jurisdiction. However, it has participated in the case at every turn. Guyana has consistently pledged to abide by the Court’s Judgement.
The Court had last issued provisional measures in December 2023, forbidding Venezuela from actions that would compromise Guyana’s administration and control of the Essequibo territory, pending the outcome of the case. Despite this, Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro signed the ‘Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba’ on April 3, 2024. The new law purports to incorporate Guyana’s Essequibo region into Venezuela. Guyana has put the international community on notice.
The heart of this legal battle is the Arbitral Award of 1899, a document that settled the boundary between the two South American nations more than a hundred years ago. In 1962, some 63 years after accepting the boundary, Venezuela claimed the Award was null and void. After years of discussions between the two countries under the United Nations Good Offices Process failed to deliver a resolution, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres referred the matter to the ICJ in 2018.
