To the provocations of the president of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, Venezuela will respond forcefully “in the streets, in the struggle” on Sunday, December 3, when the consultative referendum is held in defense of the sovereign rights over Guayana Esequiba:
“Venezuela will get respected, in the streets, in the struggle and on December 3 – as a single voice – it will say yes 5 times,” said the President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, before young people of secondary-diversified and university education who got mobilized this Tuesday, regarding the Venezuelan Student Day.
In an energetic manner, the head of state rejected “150 years of abuses by the British empire, now by the ExxonMobil oil company and the (US) Southern Command that seek to take away the territory that by history, law and tradition belongs to Venezuelans”.
By emphasizing that “we are warriors, we are fighters,” he confirmed to his Guyanese counterpart Irfaan Ali that “Venezuela is not to be threatened, Venezuela is to be respected.”
Following the call for a consultative referendum, carried out by the National Electoral Council (CNE), the government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana requested the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – whose jurisdiction Venezuela does not acknowledge – for the resolution of the territorial controversy. – to suspend the popular consultation, an action that Venezuela has described as an attempt at judicial colonialism.
Before the ICJ, on November 15, the Vice President of the Republic, Delcy Rodríguez, presented the arguments that support Venezuela’s historical rights over Guayana Esequiba. In this regard, she demonstrated that Guyana’s unprecedented request is “abnormal and unheard of.”
