Spanish → English transcript

At the International Court of Justice, Venezuela set out its position very clearly.

Venezuela’s historical rights were made very clear.

No one, beyond Venezuela, can claim to hold titles over the territory of the Guayana Esequiba.

Only Venezuela has titles, and we took more than 3,000 folios of evidence there.

What evidence? Diplomatic correspondence with the governments of the time, of the United Kingdom and of the United States.

What evidence did we take? Maps, we took correspondence.

Well, we took so much evidence, so much evidence, that there is really no way or room to debate

or to question that Venezuela is the holder of that territory.

Now then, as we have said, we went there to establish our historical position.

What is Venezuela’s historical position? That Venezuela does not submit its vital affairs, and that is how it appears in our Constitution,

to judicial mechanisms, and in this case to the body of the International Court of Justice,

we do not recognize that they have any kind of competence or jurisdiction to resolve this territorial dispute.

Because there is a special law, which is the Geneva Agreement, it is the only one that can settle this dispute.

And we said it very clearly, whether it is a ruling that says that the fraudulent 1899 award is valid,

or a ruling that says that the fraudulent 1899 award is invalid, Venezuela is not going to recognize it.

Because the only resulting mechanism for this dispute is the Geneva Agreement,

and that is why we called and explained, we are ready, Venezuela is ready and prepared

for a negotiation process with the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.

They have no other option, the path is negotiation, and this must definitely be understood now.

The defense was very clear, the rights were very well defended,

I congratulate the team of professionals, both our officials and the lawyers of the Republic,

because they firmly established the history of our country and the legitimate rights of Venezuela.