00:00Venezuela's Acting President, Delcio Rodriguez, appeared before the International Court of Justice at The Hague
00:06wearing a brooch with a map that Guyana strongly objects to
00:10as the court concluded its public hearings on the border dispute over the Esequibo region,
00:16which Guyana says comprises almost 70% of its sovereign territory.
00:21The evidence is irrefutable.
00:23Guyana Esequiba has been part of Venezuela's territory since the country's inception.
00:31In 1777, the Spanish Crown created the Captaincy General of Venezuela, comprising, among others, the province of Guayana.
00:45This administrative unit is the territorial origin of what later became the Republic of Venezuela,
00:53The border dispute involves Trinidad and Tobago's two closest South American neighbors.
01:00Venezuela's Acting President made reference to the 1966 Geneva Agreement
01:04and a protocol that was signed on June 18, 1970, in Trinidad and Tobago's capital city, port of Spain.
01:13Guyana is evading its obligations.
01:16It's seeking to revive a debate over the validity or the invalidity of the award.
01:22And through this manipulation, the agreement itself, the Port of Spain Protocol,
01:28and decades of bilateral negotiations, including those conducted under the good offices of several UN Secretaries General,
01:38are being disregarded.
01:40A copy of the Port of Spain Protocol, which is available on the United Nations website, states that as long
01:46as it remains in force,
01:48essentially, Guyana and Venezuela could not have made claim to any part of each other's territorial sovereignty.
01:55However, the website for Guyana's embassy in Caracas states that upon the expiration of the Protocol of Port of Spain
02:00in 1982,
02:02Venezuela's then-foreign minister announced that Venezuela would not renew the protocol,
02:06emphasizing the need to resume negotiations.
02:09The matters before the ICJ at a time when Guyana's economy is receiving a major boost due to its oil
02:16and gas boom.
02:17At a time when the mechanisms provided for in the Geneva agreement remained fully in force,
02:24Guyana unilaterally chose to shift the controversy from the realm of negotiation to that of judicial resolution
02:33in open violation of the agreed upon legal framework.
02:37That shift was not innocent.
02:39It coincided with an oil find in 2015, described as world-renowned.
02:48Acting President Rodriguez, like Venezuela's other representatives at the ICJ,
02:54made clear the Bolivarian Republic's position regarding the court's involvement in the Esequibo matter.
03:01Venezuela is a fervent promoter and defender of international law.
03:07For this reason, it respects the International Court of Justice as the main judicial body of the United Nations.
03:16However, this is a matter of defending one of the essential attributes of our state, namely its sovereignty.
03:25Venezuela has never consented to submitting the territorial controversy over Guayana-Esequiba to the jurisdiction of this court.
03:35The ICJ said in a statement that it will now begin its deliberation.
03:40The ICJ also said its decision will be delivered at a public sitting, the date of which will be announced
03:46in due course.
03:47Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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