Venezuela acting president rejects Trump’s “51st state” remarks at ICJ

Delcy Rodríguez rejects “51st state” idea as ICJ hears Essequibo case

Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said Monday that her country has no plans to become the 51st U.S. state, rejecting remarks by President Donald Trump as she appeared at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Rodríguez made the comment to journalists on the final day of hearings in a dispute between Venezuela and neighboring Guyana over the Essequibo region.

“We will continue to defend our integrity, our sovereignty, our independence, our history,” Rodríguez said, according to the Associated Press, adding that Venezuela is “not a colony, but a free country.” She assumed power in January after a U.S. military operation ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro.

The “51st state” remarks drew attention during the same period as the ICJ hearings. Trump, according to a post by Fox News co-anchor John Roberts on social media, told Fox News earlier Monday that he was “seriously considering” making Venezuela the 51st U.S. state. A White House request for comment on the matter was not immediately answered, and White House spokesperson Anna Kelly later declined to comment in an interview of her own with Roberts on Fox News.

Kelly said in that interview that the president is “famous for never accepting the status quo,” and she praised Rodríguez for “working incredibly cooperatively” with the United States. While Trump’s remarks focused on potential U.S. incorporation of Venezuela, Rodríguez’s comments at the court framed the issue in terms of defending Venezuelan sovereignty.

Before addressing Trump’s statements to reporters, Rodríguez defended Venezuela’s position on the Essequibo claim to judges at the world’s highest court. She argued that political negotiations — rather than a judicial ruling — are expected to resolve the century-old territorial dispute, and she urged the court to view the matter through the prism of the Geneva agreement.

The dispute centers on the Essequibo region, a territory described by AP as 62,000 square miles and comprising about two-thirds of Guyana’s land. Rodríguez told the court that the 1966 agreement was designed to keep negotiations between Venezuela and Guyana as the way to settle the controversy, while she accused Guyana of undermining that framework when it sought to move the fight to the ICJ. She also said the decision aligned with the discovery of an oil field that would later become world-renowned.

Venezuela has argued that the 1966 Geneva agreement effectively nullified an earlier 1899 arbitration decision that drew the border largely in favor of Guyana. Guyana, meanwhile, went to the ICJ in 2018 after ExxonMobil announced a significant oil discovery off the Essequibo coast.

Guyana’s case, as presented in the hearings, also includes claims about the scope of what is at stake. When hearings opened last week, Guyana’s foreign minister, Hugh Hilton Todd, told the panel that the dispute “has been a blight on our existence as a sovereign state from the very beginning,” and he said 70% of Guyana’s territory is at stake.

Although Rodríguez said Venezuela does not plan to recognize the court’s jurisdiction, the ICJ is expected to take months to issue a final, legally binding ruling. That timeline means the Trump remarks and U.S. political framing are unfolding while the legal process continues, even as both governments prepare arguments over what the Geneva agreement means for negotiations and whether the ICJ should resolve the dispute.