Foreign Minister Yván Gil from the ICJ: Nothing presented today contradicts Venezuela's rights

Published at: 04/05/2026 12:25 PM

From the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in The Hague, the Minister of Popular Power for Foreign Affairs, Yván Gil, ratified this Monday that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court to settle the territorial dispute with the Cooperative Republic of Guyana over Guiana Essequiba.

“We have been present on this first day bringing, first of all, the truth of Ven e Zuela, which has been ratified and has been instructed by the People of Venezuela. Let's remember the referendum of December 3, 2023 with a very clear mandate,” Foreign Minister Gil said in statements to the media.

He emphasized that Venezuela, “historically, has stated that it does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in the case of the territorial dispute with the Cooperative Republic of Guiana over the territory of Guiana Esequiba, a territory that is Venezuelan, that historically belongs to us, that the titles so state”,

“We have come here in response to the commitment to come and express the historical truth, the legitimate truth of our liberators who gave us that territory and which we are defending and will continue to defend in all spaces, but fundamentally through direct negotiation, as signed (...) in the Geneva Agreement of 1966,” he said.

The Venezuelan diplomat reiterated that the Geneva Agreement of 1966 is the only valid instrument that can guarantee a satisfactory solution for both nations. “Today we have seen here the arguments of Guyana, where we cannot say, but it has been demonstrated that there is no other solution other than direct negotiation,” he stressed.

He described the arguments presented at this hearing by the Guyanese Government as false, and stressed that they are “a series of manipulations of the existing evidence that the territory of Guiana Essequiba is Venezuelan, trying to mold, trying - with technicality - to seek, through the International Court of Justice, which we do not recognize to deal with this case, to resolve a political issue, a matter of controversy between two countries”.

He stressed that Venezuela's legal and political team will continue to be deployed in The Hague, “and wherever necessary to work, to defend and to assert the rights of the Bolivarian Homeland” in the face of “the malice with which the fraud that has been called the arbitral award of 1899 was mounted, which is also clear that it is completely null and void.”

“Nothing that was presented today contradicts the rights of Venezuela. They have not been questioned or demonstrated that there is any other version other than that the territory of Guiana Essequiba is Venezuelan (...) it is the legitimate will of the people of Venezuela, no court, no multilateral international system can question it,” he said.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs reported that on Wednesday, May 6, it is up to Venezuela to defend its rights in this instance, with a trained high-level team, composed of jurists, politicians, the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic and the Attorney General's Office, who have worked for years on the territorial defense of the Bolivarian nation.

MPPRE