"We condemn the intention of the US government to militarize the situation [in Essequibo]. The Southern Command is trying to create a military base in the disputed territory in order to create the spearhead of its aggression against Venezuela and seize our energy resources," Gil said at the UN General Assembly.
The minister added that the Venezuelan parliament approved a referendum to protect the sovereign territory from US aggression.
Gil also noted that Washington is once again interfering in the 200-year-old dispute over the territory of Essequibo and intends to appropriate Venezuelan oil with the help of US oil and gas company ExxonMobil.
For more than a hundred years, Venezuela and Guyana — a former British colony and now a member of the Commonwealth of Nations — have disputed the oil-rich Essequibo region. In 1966, the two countries signed the Geneva Agreement to seek a peaceful solution, but in 2018, Guyana filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where it asked for legal recognition of the 1899 decision of the Paris Court of Arbitration that awarded the territory to Guyana.
The Geneva Agreement of 1966 was registered at the United Nations. It regulates border disputes between Venezuela and British Guiana and establishes steps to resolve the dispute, but none of the preliminary protocols has been ratified by Caracas. Since 1983, Venezuela has proposed that Guyana engage in direct negotiations, although Guyana prefers to seek a solution through the UN General Assembly, the Security Council, or the ICJ.