Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez landed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Sunday prepared to present her nation’s claim to the Essequibo region before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The dispute over the 62,000-square-mile territory — roughly the size of Georgia — has smoldered for decades, drawing renewed international attention as Guyana presses for a final, binding ruling on a border that has defined the two South American neighbors’ relationship since the colonial era.
Rodríguez, who assumed Venezuela’s presidency in January following a U.S. military operation that removed Nicolás Maduro, said her country has “demonstrated at every historical stage what our territory has meant since we were born as a Republic.” The territory beneath the Essequibo River basin is home to significant deposits of gold, diamonds, and timber, and it sits directly adjacent to some of the world’s largest untapped offshore oil reserves.
Venezuela’s claim rests on colonial-era boundaries established when the region was part of the Spanish Empire. After Guyana gained independence, an 1899 arbitration — conducted by emissaries from Britain, Russia, and the United States — drew the border along the Essequibo River, placing the territory under British control, which later became part of independent Guyana. Venezuela has long rejected that ruling, arguing that a 1966 agreement signed in Geneva effectively nullified the 19th-century arbitration and opened the door to a negotiated settlement.
The road to the current hearings began in 2018, when Guyana filed a case with the ICJ asking the court to confirm that the 1899 ruling remains the binding legal boundary. Venezuela has challenged the court’s jurisdiction from the outset, warning that its participation in the hearings does not constitute consent to the ICJ’s authority. The court is expected to take months before issuing a legally binding decision.
At the opening of the hearings, Guyanese Foreign Minister Hugh Hilton Todd made clear the stakes for his country. The dispute “has been a blight on our existence as a sovereign state from the beginning,” he told the judges, noting that 70% of Guyana’s territory hangs in the balance. The outcome could reshape economic development in the region, where international energy companies have already begun exploring the oil-rich waters just beyond the contested land.