Guyana calls for peaceful settlement of dispute with Venezuela

In addition to calling on his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro to respect an anticipated decision from the UN’s highest court, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali stated Tuesday that he is looking for a peaceful settlement with Caracas regarding the disputed oil-rich Essequibo border region.

Guyana’s condemnation of what it claimed was a Venezuelan vessel’s encroachment into its seas earlier this month heightened already simmering tensions over Essequibo, which each of the neighbors claims as their own.

Maduro asked to meet with Ali, and the Venezuelan military denied that there had been an incursion.

“We are a country that believes in peace,” Ali said in Houston, Texas, where he was attending the CERAWeek energy conference. “We will do everything to ensure that our zone (maintains) peace.”

He added that Guyana is expecting a ruling on the matter from the International Court of Justice.

“We are awaiting the ruling of the ICJ, and all we’re asking to do is to respect the outcome of the ICJ, respect the rule of law.”

Speaking English Tensions between Venezuela and Guyana, one of the poorest nations in Latin America for a long time, have escalated over sovereignty of the disputed Essequibo territory, a vast area abundant in natural resources.

Since 2015, when the petroleum behemoth ExxonMobil found massive quantities that gave Guyana—a nation of only 800,000 people with a small military—the world’s largest crude oil reserves, tensions have been high.

Tensions increased when the Georgetown administration awarded ExxonMobil a new contract in April 2024.

Georgetown recently requested protective measures from the ICJ in response to Venezuela’s call for elections in Essequibo. Venezuela, however, does not recognize ICJ’s jurisdiction in the matter.

At the conference, Ali also encouraged investment in his country.

“I just want to say to all the CEOs and investors here that our story in Guyana is much larger than oil and gas,” Ail said. “Oil and gas is a catalyst for many other opportunities to develop in the country. I want you to put Guyana on your radar.”