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Venezuela brazenly passes 2024 budget with allocation to annex Essequibo
Ahead of St. Vincent “peace talks”…
Kaieteur News – The Venezuelan Congress passed a US$20.5B budget on Wednesday for 2024, with allocation to advance their illegal claims to the Essequibo region which has been part of Guyana’s territory since 1899.
The announcement was made by Executive Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Eloína Rodríguez during her reading of the budget. The troubling announcement represents another act of defiance for an order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on December 1, 2023. That order categorically stated that Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro should refrain from any act that could affect Guyana’s control over the territory.
It is also another worrying development that occurred ahead of “peace talks” today with President, Dr. Irfaan Ali. That meeting is being hosted in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and mediated by its Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves. Also expected in attendance are Prime Ministers of Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago respectively, Mia Mottley and Dr. Keith Rowley.
Executive Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Eloína Rodríguez
During her presentation, Rodríguez said, “…for the first time, we are formally including in the budget, the defense of Guyana, fulfilling the mandates given by the Venezuelan people on December 3 of the current year.” (See link for full speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPXn7cNSGXA)
Readers would recall that on December 3, 2023, Venezuela held a sham referendum to galvanise the support of its people to annex the Essequibo region. Eighty nine percent of the voting population had refused to participate in Maduro’s imperialist agenda. Weekly publication, the Latin American Advisor, recently featured several comments from industry stakeholders who also condemned Maduro’s reckless actions. Two such persons included Michael Shifter, former president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a leading policy forum on Western Hemisphere affairs based in Washington, DC; and Andrea Colombo, a former intern at the Inter-American Dialogue. In a joint statement, they said, “With his back against the wall, Maduro is seeking to galvanize Venezuelans and whip up nationalist sentiment around the country’s long dormant territorial dispute with neighboring Guyana…”
They added, “Maduro’s irresponsible and dangerous gambit clearly reflects the regime’s frustration in successfully countering opposition leader María Corina Machado’s overwhelming victory in the October primary vote. That the U.S. company ExxonMobil is deeply involved in the oil-rich region further fuels Maduro’s anti-imperialist narrative…”
Ahead of the meeting with Maduro today, President Ali has assured that he will not entertain any discussion about deviating from the International Court of Justice which has been asked to determine the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award which gave Guyana control over the Essequibo region. With that understanding in mind, the Guyanese leader said he is open to having talks aimed at de-escalating Venezuela’s aggressions which recently included threats for companies in the Essequibo region to leave in three months and an imminent law to govern the affairs of the mineral-rich area.
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- Congress, Delcy Eloína Rodríguez, Essequibo, Executive Vice President of Venezuela, Latin American Advisor
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