(Demerara Waves) Venezuela has rejected the decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to accept jurisdiction to hear the controversy over the 1899 settlement of the land boundary with Guyana.
“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela repudiates the ruling issued by the ICJ in the aforementioned terms, while claiming, once again, the validity of the 1966 Geneva Agreement and ratifying that it will continue to exercise its just claim, given the grotesque fraud that the Arbitration Award of 1899 implied to the detriment of their territorial integrity,” the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said.
Insisting that the 1966 Geneva Agreement is the only avenue to settle dispute bilaterally through “friendly negotiations”, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry reiterated its rejection of the judicial route. The Nicolas Maduro administration argued that the World Court was “incapable of reaching the practical and satisfactory settlement.”
“In this sense, Venezuela has been and is willing to engage in these friendly negotiations to reach a mutually satisfactory settlement,” the Foreign Ministry in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital said. Both the People’s Progressive Party Civic and People’s National Congress Reform-led coalition administrations have agreed that the United Nations-led mediation process has failed to reach agreement on settling the controversy.
