The Venezuelan Government on Friday ratified its sovereignty over the Essequibo and the full validity of the Geneva Agreement of February 1966, which constitutes the legal instrument to solve the territorial dispute with neighboring Guyana.

Caracas.- On the 57th anniversary of this framework agreement, the Bolivarian Republic insisted on denouncing the unjust and spurious conduct of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the occasion of the Paris arbitration fraud of 1899, which facilitated the seizure of the territory known as the Essequiba Guiana.

A communiqué issued by the Ministry of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs underlined that Caracas is "a non-renounceable defender of its sovereignty and territorial integrity."

It affirmed that the Geneva Agreement of 1966 is an international treaty subscribed by Venezuela, the United Kingdom, and English Guyana, which is about to become independent and is validly deposited in the United Nations.

The text referred that this document establishes the terms of faithful compliance to solve the fraudulent dispossession carried out by the imperial powers against our homeland, in a practical and satisfactory solution to the territorial controversy.

The Foreign Ministry pointed out that 57 years after it entered into force, Venezuela demonstrated its unwavering conviction for peace, legality, and unrestricted respect for the principles of International Public Law.

It considered that these are the only bulwarks for ‘advancing along the sure path that will resolve this controversy and safeguard its inalienable sovereign rights over the Essequibo’.

The Venezuelan Government expressed its firm decision to continue to walk, together with the people, along the paths of the Bolivarian Diplomacy of Peace, in the defense of ‘our inalienable and legitimate rights,’ conquered more than 200 years ago, through the struggle for independence. (PL)