International court warns Venezuela over Guyana vote

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) today warned Venezuela it should take no action to seize neighboring Guyana's resource-rich Essequibo province, regardless of the outcome of a 3 December referendum on the status of the disputed territory.

Guyana and Venezuela "shall refrain from any action which might aggravate or extend the dispute before the court or make it more difficult to resolve," the ICJ said.

The South American countries are locked in a simmering century-long territorial dispute over the province that Caracas calls Guayana Esequiba. The dispute has intensified since 2016 when ExxonMobil made several oil finds in the deepwater Stabroek block that has prevented the countries from agreeing on their maritime boundary. Stabroek partially overlaps the disputed waters.

"The definitive settlement of the boundary dispute between Guyana and Venezuela are matters for the court to decide at the merits stage," the Hague-based ICJ said.

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro said today the country will move ahead with plans for the vote on Sunday, in which citizens would say whether or not they believe the region belongs to Venezuela. The country's supreme court said it was in an emergency "permanent session" following the ICJ warning "... for the protection and defense of the rights of the Venezuelan people."

The head of Venezuela's Maduro-aligned national assembly said the ICJ warning does not prevent Sunday's vote, but rather blocks Guyana from granting new oil exploration licenses.

The ICJ cleared the way in April for settling the dispute, but Venezuela rejected that ruling. Maduro stoked the dispute last month by setting the date for Sunday's vote on "its rights" to the province.

Guyana officials lauded the ICJ ruling today.

"Today's ruling is legally binding on Venezuela," Guyana's president Irfaan Ali said. "Both the UN charter and the statute of the court, to which Venezuela is a party, require its strict compliance."

There was "increased Venezuelan military activity" along the border this week, Guyanese officials said. US and Guyanese military officials met this week "to discuss their readiness to address security threats," the US embassy in Georgetown said.

The dispute dates back to colonial times, when the UK acquired British Guiana, which included the disputed territory, without establishing a clear border with Venezuela.

By Canute James and Carlos Camacho