Delcy Rodríguez arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday to defend Venezuela's claim to Essequibo, a mineral- and oil-rich region in western Guyana, as the International Court of Justice held hearings in one of South America's most bitter border disputes.
Rodríguez was due to make the final court appearance on Monday, May 4, 2026, in a case that could take months before the judges issue a final, legally binding ruling.
The fight over Essequibo has run for generations. The territory, nearly 62,000 square miles in size, is rich in gold, diamonds, timber and other natural resources, and sits near massive offshore oil deposits. Guyana and Venezuela both claim it, but Caracas has said it has regarded the region as its own since the Spanish colonial period.
The legal dispute traces back to 1899, when arbitrators from Britain, Russia and the United States drew the border along the Essequibo River largely in Guyana's favor. Venezuela argues that a 1966 agreement sealed in Geneva effectively nullified that 19th-century arbitration, while Guyana maintains the boundary settled then should stand. That clash is now before the court in The Hague, where the judges are weighing ownership of the territory and the ruling is expected to settle the matter under international law.
The tension in the case is that the territory's long-running legal history now meets a fresh economic prize. Whoever prevails would not just win a map argument. The decision would carry force far beyond the courtroom, over land tied to resources and oil money that have made Essequibo more valuable than ever.
