United, We Say: Down with the Empire!

Due to the biggest land grab attempt by the British and subsequent AngloZionist Empire NATO and its corporative financial mafia against our indigenous Venezuela and Latinoamerica,

Worker President Nicolás Maduro calls on all Venezuelans to unite in defense of the Esequibo and "La Franja Petrolífera del Orinoco" 🌎✊🏽⚖️⚔️

Anti-imperialist Union! "Let's go with national unity above colors, parties, and positions"

🇻🇪 The 1966 Geneva Agreement is the only valid instrument to resolve the Essequibo controversy

Comrade Worker President Nicolás Maduro Moros remembered the independence struggle of the Liberator Simón Bolívar: "If something characterized our history, it is that no one granted us independence; we won independence through blood, sweat, fire, tears, sacrifices!"

The Liberator said: "They have fallen, and we have lost half of our population to conquer our independence!" Act of National Union in Defense of La Guayana Esequiba and Master Class with Maduro, Moncada, Escarrá, and others.

The Liberator Simón Bolívar established in three early Founding Laws the Fundamental Law of Colombia La Grande, the Constitution of 1819, and the Constitution of 1821 Rosario Cúcuta: "To Quito corresponds the Department of Ecuador, to New Granada the Viceroyalty of Santa Fé, and to Venezuela the Captaincy General of Venezuela. There is born the Utis Posidetis Uris Bolivariano!

The Act of National Union in Defense of Guayana Esequiba was an event of historical importance for Venezuela. President Nicolás Maduro presented the official position of the state regarding the controversy related to that territory, in view of the consultative referendum that will be held on December 3.

It was held in the Ríos Reyna Room of the Teresa Carreño Theater in Caracas with the attendance of representatives of all public powers and the military, governors, mayors, as well as economic and political actors affiliated with the opposition, as well as educational and cultural, social movements, intellectuals, and experts on the subject.

The head of state presented the historical and legal file that demonstrates and confirms the legitimacy of Venezuela's claim over the Essequibo territory, accompanied by the president of the National Assembly, Dr. Jorge Rodríguez; the executive vice president, Dr. Delcy Rodríguez; the minister of defense, General Vladímir Padrino López; the Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations (UN) and historian, Samuel Moncada; the deputy and constitutionalist Hermann Escarrá; and Brigadier General and historian Pompeyo Torrealba, who was decorated at the beginning of the event with the Liberator Order for his life's work as a defender and maximum authority on the dispute around Guayana Esequiba.

The six moments that mark the controversy over the Essequibo

In his presentation, President Maduro highlighted the importance of understanding the six historical moments that have marked the future of Guayana Esequiba, a characterization that reveals the successive stages of formation of the state and the Republic of Venezuela, of the aggressions and foreign arrangements for the sake of territorial dispossession, actions to denounce and restitute Essequibo as an integral part of Venezuela before public international organizations and law.

[Image Link: The six historical moments that characterize the controversy over Essequibo]

The first moment covers the colonial and independence period, from the arrival of European colonialism in 1492 until 1840 when the territory of Venezuela was already constituted according to law.

"It was in 1777 when the Kingdom of Spain decreed the creation of the Captaincy General of Venezuela, the first administrative unit that united all the provinces that later made up the territory of Venezuela," he explained, where Essequibo was always included, as dictated by each constitution. from independence onwards.

Then, he referred to the period of imperial aggression, dispossession, and arbitration fraud, which goes from 1840 to 1899. In this sense, he pointed out that it was in 1840 when the British Empire began to carry out maneuvers to seize the Eastern Territory of Venezuela until the consummation of the Fraud of the Paris Arbitration Award in 1899.

He alluded to the Monroe Doctrine, which advocates the supremacy of the United States in all of America, and how it was used to strip Venezuela of the Essequibo in a dispute between the nascent American and consolidated British Empires.

The president pointed out that Venezuela was sacrificed in an agreement between both powers, allowing the British to maintain their occupation of the Essequibo Territory in exchange for American concessions in other places on the American Continent and in the Pacific, which resulted in the Award of 1899, which he described as "disastrous, invalid, void, fraudulent, and immoral."

Regarding this episode, Ambassador Samuel Moncada intervened to describe the manipulation and abuse of power by the British and Americans in their dealings with Venezuela at the end of the 19th century. The first two reached a secret consensus that harmed Venezuela, while the diminished government of the day had agreed to submit to arbitration without its representation. Subsequently, the Treaty of Washington of 1897 was drafted, with the rules for the courts, which favored the British possession of the Venezuelan territories, ignoring international law and the Uti possidetis iuris, a legal principle that in Latin means "as you possess according to the right, so you will possess."

The third historical moment includes from 1900 to 1966, traced by the imperial diplomacy of the gunboats, the denunciations of arbitration fraud and by the Geneva Agreement, characterized by “the awakening of conscience” of the Venezuelan population about the arbitrary seizure to which we were subjected as a country.

From this period, the president reflected that the most bitter lesson derived was that "the divisions among Venezuelans, the civil wars, political cannibalism, and surrender to foreign interests were taken advantage of by the dominant powers to strip us of our territory.

However, that historical moment also highlighted the international achievement in the diplomatic field with the signing of the Geneva Agreement in 1966, which coincided with the independence of Guyana. An 'independence' given by the British so they could be puppets. Nothing compares to the brave Venezuelan independence fight across América against the Spaniards, the biggest empire at the moment.

"It is with the signing of the Geneva Agreement that the kingdom of Great Britain, the occupying colonial power of Guayana Esequiba, accepts the controversy that Venezuela had been raising throughout the 20th century. It is a modular element and leaves aside the arbitration award," said the head of state.

This treaty was signed by all the parties involved: Venezuela, the United Kingdom, and the then Guyanese colony, which demonstrates its validity and legitimacy before the international community.

In this sense, President Maduro emphasized the importance of respecting and complying with the Geneva Agreement as the only valid instrument to overcome the territorial controversy. Likewise, he stressed that any attempt to resolve it unilaterally or by imposing unilateral decisions would be contrary to the principles established in the agreement.

During the dissertation, a letter sent in 1966 by the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Ignacio Iribarren Borges, to the first head of diplomacy of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, was shown, in which he recognized Guyanese independence but reaffirmed Venezuela's territorial rights over the region of Essequibo River.

The fourth historical moment, from 1966 to 2015, is related to the assumption of the application of the Geneva Agreement, with the search for a practical and satisfactory solution for the parties as a compass.

Maduro recalled that, during his time as Foreign Minister of President Hugo Chávez, he witnessed that since 1999 an active diplomatic strategy was initiated to seek a solution within the framework of the Geneva Agreement, within the framework of Bolivarian Peace Diplomacy. At that time, a statement was drafted in which Guyana accepted that the Geneva Agreement was the only legal instrument to address the dispute.

The fifth moment, which has elapsed since 2015, has been defined by the adoption of a hostile stance towards Venezuela by Guyana. President Maduro explained that the ExxonMobil company sought revenge by expanding in Guyana, in retaliation for the nationalization of the Venezuelan oil industry in 2007, which led to the withdrawal of the transnational company from the country.

ExxonMobil achieved this through corrupt practices, such as bribery and kickbacks, to secure exclusivity over oil blocks in disputed maritime areas, where important oil deposits were found.

The president also highlighted that, in 2015, Brigadier David Granger assumed the presidency of Guyana, who had connections with the Pentagon and the United States Southern Command. During his mandate, a diplomacy of imperial influence and provocations by the Southern Command was developed, which included illegal energy concessions to multinational corporations.

Finally, the sixth period begins in 2023, a new stage with the consultative referendum. The vote on December 3 is an initiative to involve the Venezuelan population and leave in their hands the decision on the actions that the revolutionary government should take regarding the territorial controversy over Guayana Esequiba. It consists of five questions that address the following aspects:

1. The rejection of the Paris Arbitration Award of 1899 and the defense of Venezuela's rights over the Essequibo.

2. Support for the 1966 Geneva Agreement as the only legal framework to reach a practical and satisfactory solution for both parties.

3. Opposition to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to resolve the territorial dispute.

4. The opposition to Guyana's claim to unilaterally dispose of a sea pending delimitation, in violation of international law.

5. The creation of the Guayana Esequiba state and the granting of Venezuelan citizenship and identity card to the current and future population of that territory, in accordance with the Geneva Agreement and international law.

Let us remember that in 2018, Guyana went to the ICJ to request a ruling in its favor in relation to the Essequibo controversy, an action that rejected the Geneva Agreement. In this regard, the president said:

"Venezuela never accepted the International Court of Justice because it will never issue a ruling that is satisfactory to the parties. (...) Guyana unilaterally proceeded to kick the Geneva Agreement."

On June 30, 2018, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the UN, announced that, due to the lack of progress in the territorial dispute over Guyana Esequiba, he chose the International Court of Justice as the settlement mechanism.

In his speech, President Nicolás Maduro condemned Guterres' action, calling it a flagrant violation of the 1966 agreement:

"As I told him personally on multiple occasions, and it is recorded in writing at the UN General Secretariat. In public, in private, in writing. Because any option had to be signed by us, by the Venezuelan government."

From the act and beyond

The keynote lecture given by President Maduro expressed the position of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela regarding the territorial controversy in question. He gave in great detail all the irrefutable arguments that demonstrate the legitimately historical rights of the country, in accordance with public international laws, regarding the Essequibo.

The Act of National Union in Defense of Guayana Esequiba demonstrated that the determination of President Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan state to defend what legitimately belongs to the nation is peremptory, in response to the violations committed by Guyana, the United States, and ExxonMobil in the shadows to carry out a repeat of the arbitration fraud of 1899.

It was a historical milestone in which the head of state, in his constitutional powers, called on the entire Venezuelan population to give "a forceful response to the provocation of the Southern Command, of ExxonMobil, [that] be a united national response," as we have never experienced before—the union of the national soul, the union of the national conscience, above colors, parties, and positions.

In effect, it would no longer be just a matter of state: citizens now have the option to decide the response that should be given to foreign aggression and the attempt to culminate the process of dispossession that has already been in vogue for more than 124 years.

With the campaign towards the Consultative Referendum on December 3, a cycle of general mobilization begins for the defense of Venezuelan territorial sovereignty and to carry it out in Guayana Esequiba, even within the framework of the Geneva Agreement.

Beyond the event, the imprint of a historical moment of vital importance for the future life of the country was marked, where "there is only one color, and it is [that of] the homeland; here there is only one flag, yellow, blue, and red, with eight stars, including the eighth star of our Guayana Esequiba."

On Monday, all of Venezuela had marched in the 335 municipalities in the 23 states and Caracas in defense of the motherland and Venezuela's territorial rights!

¡Patria Socialista o Muerte! ¡Hasta La Victoria Siempre! ¡Venceremos!

¡El Sol de Venezuela Nace en el Esequibo! 🇻🇪🌄❤️‍🔥✊🏽⚖️