In Venezuela, people can vote today. However, no president or parliament will be elected: the country’s borders are to be redrawn – a referendum with a lot of explosives.
Venezuela is today asking its people whether the province of Essequibo, also known as Esequiba, should become a new Venezuelan state. Only: Essequibo has been part of Venezuela’s neighboring country Guyana, which was a British colony until 1966, since an arbitration decision more than 120 years old.
Awaken oil deposits desires
However, Venezuela has been making claims for decades. On Venezuela’s maps, the sparsely populated Essequibo is shown as a separate part of the country, which makes up two thirds of the Guyanese national territory. Since the oil company ExxonMobil discovered oil reserves in the area in 2015, Venezuela’s desires have grown. According to further discoveries, Guyana’s reserves are now believed to be larger than those of Kuwait.
Venezuela, which is also oil-rich and under authoritarian rule by President Nicolás Maduro, has been suffering from an ongoing economic crisis for years. Millions of Venezuelans have left the country in recent years due to the political and economic situation.
Guyana wanted to prevent referendum
Guyana had described the referendum as an “existential” threat and appealed to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He ordered Venezuela on Friday not to interfere in the disputed region. However, the court did not specifically order Venezuela to stop its referendum.
Guyana’s President Ifraan Ali welcomed the court decision and emphasized that Venezuela was prohibited from annexing Guyanese territory. The Venezuelan government interprets the verdict completely differently: the court rejected Guyana’s attempt to prevent the referendum from taking place. Results are expected on Monday morning German time.