ICJ Starts Hearings on Guyana-Venezuela Essequibo Dispute

The International Court of Justice in The Hague began a week of public hearings on Monday, May 4, in a long-standing territorial dispute between Guyana and Venezuela over the oil-rich Essequibo region, a vast area of jungle spanning more than 160,000 square kilometers that holds gold, diamonds, timber and offshore oil deposits.

Guyana, which filed the case in 2018, asked the court to uphold an 1899 arbitral award that drew the border along the Essequibo River largely in its favor. The award resulted from arbitration involving Britain, representing its then-colony British Guiana, along with Russia and the United States, which acted partly on Venezuela's behalf after Caracas severed ties with Britain. Guyana's Foreign Minister Hugh Hilton Todd told judges the dispute affects more than 70 percent of his country's territory and described it as "a blight on our existence as a sovereign state from the very beginning," underscoring its existential importance to national security and development.

Venezuela maintains the 1899 decision is invalid and insists the matter falls under the 1966 Geneva Agreement, which calls for bilateral negotiations toward a practical resolution. A government...