CARACAS, December 9. /TASS/. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has signed decrees that actually incorporate the disputed territory of Guayana Esequiba into the Bolivarian Republic.

Maduro announced the decrees at a rally in Caracas. One of the documents appoints the head of the new province. The president said that an office would open in the town of Tumeremo on Saturday that would issue Venezuelan IDs.

Maduro also signed and announced a decree creating a high-level commission to protect Essequibo, which will be chaired by Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. Another decree enshrines Venezuela’s updated map. One more decree orders the state oil company PDVSA to create a regional branch and rules "to begin the issuance of oil, gas and mining licenses throughout the country." Besides, Maduro announced a decree on the creation of Guayana Esequiba’s zone of integral defense.

On December 6, Venezuela’s National Assembly unanimously voted to pass the first reading of a bill in defense of the Essequibo territory within Venezuela based on the results of a consultative referendum. The bill envisages creating a 24th Venezuelan province in Essequibo.

Territorial dispute

Venezuela and Guyana have been at odds over a 159,500-square-kilometer area west of the Essequibo River for more than a century. Tensions flared up after oil fields containing at least ten bln barrels of oil had been discovered in 2015 and Guyana provided the ExxonMobil company with a concession to explore oil in the offshore areas that had not been delimited. In April, the UN International Court of Justice found Guyana’s lawsuit against Venezuela on border demarcation based on the 1899 decision of a Paris arbitral tribunal to be admissible. The court ruling, which cited fake maps and huge pressure from the UK, handed 90% of the disputed area to London’s colony, British Guiana. Venezuela views Guayana Esequiba as its legitimate territory and believes that the dispute does not fall under the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and insists on direct border demarcation talks with Guyana, as provided for in the 1966 Geneva Agreement.