The Essequibo Dispute Between Guyana and Venezuela
The boundary was settled by an arbitral tribunal in 1899, an award Venezuela accepted for six decades before repudiating it in 1962 on the basis of alleged procedural collusion. The dispute remained largely dormant while Essequibo was economically marginal. The Stabroek Block discovery changed that: Guyana, a country of under a million people, moved from negligible production to over 600,000 barrels a day, with GDP growth rates above 30 percent. Guyana brought the case to the ICJ in 2018; Venezuela disputes its jurisdiction. The December 2023 referendum asked voters to endorse creating a Venezuelan state in Essequibo and granting its residents Venezuelan citizenship. Following regional mediation the two presidents met in St Vincent and agreed not to use force, though Venezuelan legislation and military deployments have continued to assert the claim, and Guyana has deepened security cooperation with the United States and Brazil.
- Year: 2023 CE
- Category: Diplomatic
