In an emergency motion during the ordinary session this Thursday, the National Assembly (AN) agreed to propose a consultative referendum so that the people strengthen the defense of Guayana Esequiba and the inalienable rights of Venezuela over that territory.
The national consultation was proposed by the president of the AN, deputy Jorge Rodríguez (PSUV/Capital Department), protected by article 79 of the Internal and Debating Regulations (Ridan); and 71 of the Bolivarian Constitution, which was approved by the Parliamentary Plenary invoking constitutional articles 10 and 13.
This decision responds to the insolent statements by the United States Government in flagrant aggression against Venezuela’s sovereignty over the Essequibo. In this regard, Rodríguez described as ignorant and interfering the assertions of the Undersecretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the United States Department of State (USA) Brian A. Nichols, who expressed this Wednesday his support for Guyana to exploit the natural resources of the Essequibo. bending to transnational interests and against the legitimate rights of Venezuela.
Rodríguez highlighted that, as a result of the maneuvers of the Arbitration Award of 1899, it was intended to strip Venezuela of 159,500 square kilometers of the land territory of Guayana Esequiba, which he considered the greatest fraud of the time. He said that the true intention of Great Britain and the United States was to seize and take over the mouth of the Orinoco River.
The parliamentarian recalled that the 1966 Geneva Agreement annulled said Arbitration Award. “When Guyana signed that agreement, it is from there that we should seek to resolve the controversy,” he said.
He appealed to article 13 of the Magna Carta, which states that the territory may never be ceded, transferred, leased, or in any way alienated, even temporarily or partially, to foreign States or other subjects of international law.
