Guyana/Venezuela Border Case: Oral arguments on merits to begin on May 4 before ICJ

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall, SC has revealed that oral arguments in the Guyana/Venezuela Border Controversy case before the International Court of Justice (CIJ) will begin on May 4, 2026.

He made this announcement on Friday during his contribution to the national budget debates.

Guyana has already filed two written pleadings on the merits of the case, and Venezuela has also filed two – the last in August 2025.

Back in March 2018, Guyana had moved to the ICJ, seeking a final and binding settlement of the 1899 Arbitral Award, which established the boundaries with Venezuela.

Following the submission of oral arguments on the merits of the case, the World Court will deliberate on its final judgement, which will be binding on the two countries.

The Spanish-speaking nation is claiming more than two-thirds of Guyana’s landmass – the entire Essequibo region and a portion of Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), where over 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) have been found and production as well as other exploration activities are currently being undertaken offshore Guyana.

In recent years, however, there has been heightened aggression from Venezuela towards Guyana, including as recently as last year, despite the case pending before the World Court, which had even had to issue two sets of provisional measures to restrain Venezuela and ease rising tensions between the two South American nations.

But with the recent capture and toppling of the Nicolás Maduro regime in Caracas by the United States on January 3, that aggression is likely to wane – something which the Government of Guyana welcomes.

“The President has spoken extensively on ensuring that we protect the people of Guyana, to ensure our resources are protected, and to ensure that everyone can go to bed at night feeling safe, knowing that they can get up the next day and go to work and go about their business.  And I think we’ve achieved that.  We want to maintain that,” Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hugh Todd had told reporters earlier this year.

Moreover, one of Guyana’s agents in the ICJ case, Carl Greenidge, believes that the latest developments in Venezuela could see a reduction in military aggression against Guyana.
“The change in the relationship between Venezuela and the U.S. in the immediate future is likely to put on hold Venezuela’s military ambitions towards Guyana because I don’t think they’ll be in a position to realise that,” Greenidge, a former Foreign Affairs Minister, told local news agency OilNOW.

An early morning operation on January 3 saw US troops removing Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their home on a military base in downtown Caracas and transporting them to New York, where they were subsequently arraigned on narcotics charges.