GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Dec 6, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Tensions rose between Venezuela

and Guyana Tuesday as Caracas proposed a bill to declare a Venezuelan
province in a disputed oil-rich region and ordered the state oil company to
issue licenses for extracting crude there.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro proposed at a government meeting that a
bill be sent to the National Assembly for the creation of a "Guyana Esequiba"
province in the region Guyana has administered for over a century.

He also said oil, gas and mining licenses must be issued immediately.

Venezuela held a controversial non-binding referendum on the region's fate
Sunday that yielded an overwhelming 95-percent "yes" vote for Caracas'
designs on Essequibo, or Esequiba as it is known in Venezuela.

Maduro gave an ultimatum to oil companies working under concessions given by
Guyana to withdraw their operations within three months.

He also said a town bordering the disputed area, Tumeremo, would become
headquarters of Venezuelan efforts to defend its interests there, saying
authorities would conduct a census and begin issuing identity cards without
giving details of how that would occur.

Earlier Tuesday, Guyana said it would approach the UN Security Council for
help if Venezuela makes any moves following the referendum, which Guyana had
sought to stop with an urgent application to the International Court of
Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

Guyana's Attorney General Anil Nandlall told AFP "any action or any attempt
to take any action pursuant to the referendum will necessitate a resort to
the UN Security Council as an injured party."

He said Guyana would invoke Articles 41 and 42 of the UN Charter which can
authorize sanctions or military action to maintain or restore international
peace and security.

"In terms of military, it (the UNSC) can authorize the use of armed forces by
member states to assist in the enforcement" of ICJ orders, Nandlall said.

- 'Existential' threat -

Guyana has administered Essequibo for over a century. The region makes up
more than two-thirds of its territory and is home to 125,000 of Guyana's
800,000 citizens.

Litigation is pending before the ICJ over where the borders should lie.

Guyana, a former British and Dutch colony, insists the frontiers were
determined by an arbitration panel in 1899.

But Venezuela -- which does not accept the ICJ's jurisdiction in the matter -
- claims the Essequibo River to the region's east forms a natural border and
had historically been recognized as such.

The dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered oil in Essequibo in
2015.

Caracas called Sunday's referendum after Georgetown started auctioning off
oil blocks in Essequibo in August.

Guyana had asked the ICJ to block the vote, which it considered an
existential threat.

On Friday, the court urged Caracas to take no action that might affect the
disputed territory, but did not grant Georgetown's request for urgent
intervention.

Instead, it ruled that Venezuela "shall refrain from taking any action which
would modify the situation that currently prevails in the territory in
dispute."

On Sunday, Guyana's President Irfaan Ali warned that if Venezuela ignored the
court order, "it will be a great injustice to the people of Venezuela because
ultimately that path would lead to the suffering of the people of Venezuela."

Voters were asked to respond to five questions in the referendum, including
whether Venezuela should reject the 1899 arbitration decision as well as the
ICJ's jurisdiction.

They were also asked whether Venezuelan citizenship should be granted to the
people -- currently Guyanese -- of a new "Guyana Esequiba State."