00:01To begin with, Venezuela has consistently argued without fail that the court lacks jurisdiction over this controversy.
00:09The court nevertheless upheld its jurisdiction in its 2020 judgment.
00:15Venezuela respectfully maintained that it should not have done so and reserves its position on the matter.
00:20Professor Makane Moise McGenge making clear Venezuela's position when he appeared before the court on the second day of its
00:28hearings on the border dispute between Guyana and Venezuela over the Esequibo region.
00:33The point was consistently made by Venezuela's delegation on day two of the ICJ's proceedings involving Trinidad and Tobago's two
00:41closest South American neighbors.
00:44Ambassador Samuel Moncada also spoke on Venezuela's behalf.
00:48Venezuela does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice.
00:56Ronin is put on the sentence in 2020.
00:59Respectfully, we do not recognize your jurisdiction to try to solve this controversy.
01:04Mr. Moncada explained why Venezuela does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICJ, which was established by the United Nations
01:13Charter.
01:13The Venezuelan people clearly expressed their rejection of submitting this dispute to the court's jurisdiction.
01:29Venezuela is here today because it cannot remain silent in the face of a process that Guyana intends to use
01:38to unilaterally redefine both the nature of the territorial dispute and the obligations binding Venezuela and Guyana.
01:47Venezuela is dismissing Guyana's claim to the ICJ two days earlier that over 70% of its sovereign territory is
01:54at stake and that Venezuela presents an existential threat which has impacted its development.
02:00On the contrary, Guyana was benefited of the solidary policy of Venezuela that were offered as well to other countries
02:07of the region.
02:10We cannot accuse Venezuela of not being a good neighbor.
02:15Guyana is calling on the ICJ two, among other things, order that Venezuela must withdraw and destroy the official maps
02:23that purport to depict Guyana-Esequiba as part of Venezuela.
02:27Venezuela has a long tradition of historic rights over Guayana-Esequiba coming from the presence of the Spanish Empire and
02:35the Venezuelan Republic for centuries.
02:38As a fact, the Esequibo River has its name after a Spanish soldier.
02:46Guyana is seeking the ICJ's definitive ruling in its favor as it experiences a crude oil and natural gas boom.
02:52One of Guyana's ambassadors described the Esequibo region as the engine of Guyana's economic development.
02:58In 1962, our foreign minister, Marcos Falcón, stated formally the reclamation of Venezuela for the Guayana-Esequiba precisely in the
03:11Committee of the Discolonization of the United Nations.
03:15That reclamation brought about the negotiations that gave life to the 1966 Geneva Agreement, which effects were upheld in time
03:26between Venezuela and Guyana until, in the year 2015, energy interests instigated a change of position in the government of
03:35Guyana.
03:36Venezuela is contesting that the 1897 Treaty in Washington and the subsequent arbitrarial award and boundary establishment in 1899 are
03:46invalid.
03:47The Geneva Agreement is an instrument of peace that calls on both sides to find, through the means of direct
03:57negotiation, a solution, practical and beneficiary for both, which is exactly the opposite to a decision imposed by a court.
04:06The ICJ's hearings on the Esequibo matter end on May 11th.
04:10Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
04:17Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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