Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez on Monday (May 11th) dismissed reported comments by US President Donald Trump suggesting that Venezuela could become the “51st US state”.
Rodríguez said this while attending a hearing at the International Court of Justice in The Hague regarding the long-running territorial dispute between Venezuela and neighboring Guyana over the oil-rich Essequibo region.
“We will continue to defend our integrity, our sovereignty, our independence, our history,” Rodríguez told reporters.
Venezuela “is not a colony, but a free country,” she added.
Trump reportedly says he is “seriously considering” the idea.
Rodríguez was responding to remarks Trump reportedly made during an interview with Fox News on Monday.
According to host John Roberts, Trump said he was “seriously considering making Venezuela the 51st state of the United States.”
Trump has made comments about Canada before.
Venezuela is defending the Essequibo claim at the World Court
Before commenting on Trump’s remarks, Rodríguez defended Venezuela’s claim to the Essequibo region during proceedings at the International Court of Justice.
She argued that the territorial dispute should be resolved through political negotiation rather than judicial intervention.
“At a time when the mechanisms set out in the Geneva Agreement were still fully in effect, Guyana unilaterally decided to move the dispute from the negotiation arena to judicial resolution,” Rodríguez told the court.
“This change was not accidental; in 2015 it coincided with the discovery of an oil field that became world famous,” she added.
Why the Essequibo Region Matters
The Essequibo region covers approximately 62,000 square miles and is roughly two-thirds of Guyana’s land area.
The area is rich in gold, diamonds, timber and other natural resources. It is also located near massive offshore oil reserves that currently produce an estimated 900,000 barrels of oil per day.
This production has transformed Guyana into one of the fastest growing energy producers in South America.
Venezuela has long claimed the region as its own, claiming it historically belonged to colonial-era borders.
However, an 1899 arbitration decision by representatives of Britain, Russia, and the United States established the current boundary largely in favor of Guyana.
The dispute intensified after the discoveries of oil
Tensions between the two countries escalated after ExxonMobil announced a major oil discovery in 2015 off the coast of Essequibo.
In 2018, Guyana formally asked the International Court of Justice to uphold the 1899 ruling affirming its sovereignty over the territory.
The dispute further escalated in 2023, when former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro threatened to annex the region following a controversial national referendum.
Maduro was later removed from power during a US military operation in Caracas in January and flown to New York to face drug-trafficking charges, to which he pleaded not guilty.
The ICJ’s decision could take months
Guyana’s Foreign Minister Hugh Hilton Todd told judges last week that the territorial dispute “has been the blight of our existence as a sovereign state from the very beginning.”
He warned that almost 70% of Guyana’s territory is at risk in the case.
The International Court of Justice is expected to take several months to issue a final ruling.
Venezuela says that participation in the hearings does not mean that it accepts the court’s jurisdiction over the dispute.
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