AP– Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez told journalists Monday that her country had no plans to become the 51st US state after President Donald Trump said he was “seriously considering” the move.
Rodríguez was speaking at the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the final day of hearings in a dispute between her country and neighboring Guyana over the massive mineral- and oil-rich Essequibo region.
“We will continue to defend our integrity, our sovereignty, our independence, our history,” said Rodríguez, who assumed power in January following a U.S. military operation that ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela is “not a colony, but a free country,” she added.
Speaking to Fox News earlier on Monday, Trump said he was “seriously considering making Venezuela the 51st US state,” according to a post by Fox News’ co-anchor John Roberts on social media.
The exact context of Trump’s remark remains unclear. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.
Trump has made similar comments about Canada.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly later declined to comment on Trump’s plans in an interview of her own with Roberts on Fox News. Kelly said the president is “famous for never accepting the status quo,” and praised Rodríguez for “working incredibly cooperatively” with the U.S.
Rodríguez went on to say that Venezuelan and US officials have been in touch and are working on “cooperation and understanding.”
Before addressing Trump’s comments, Rodríguez defended her country’s claim to Essequibo at the United Nations’ highest court, telling judges that political negotiations — not a judicial ruling — will resolve the century-old territorial dispute.
The 62,000-square-mile territory, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana, is rich in gold, diamonds, timber and other natural resources. It also sits near massive offshore oil deposits currently producing an average 900,000 barrels a day.
That output is close to Venezuela’s daily production of about 1 million barrels a day and has transformed one of the smallest countries in South America into a significant energy producer.
Venezuela has considered Essequibo its own since the Spanish colonial period, when the jungle region fell within its boundaries. But an 1899 decision by arbitrators from Britain, Russia and the United States drew the border along the Essequibo River largely in favor of Guyana.
This aerial view shows the Linden-Lethem road, in the Essequibo region, Guyana, on August 28, 2025. Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP/Getty Images
Venezuela has argued that a 1966 agreement sealed in Geneva to resolve the dispute effectively nullified the 19th-century arbitration. In 2018, however, three years after ExxonMobil announced a significant oil discovery off the Essequibo coast, Guyana’s government went to the International Court of Justice and asked judges to uphold the 1899 ruling.
Tensions between the countries further flared in 2023, when Rodríguez’s predecessor, Maduro, threatened to annex the region by force after holding a referendum asking voters if Essequibo should be turned into a Venezuelan state. Maduro was captured Jan. 3 during a US military operation in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, and taken to New York to face drug trafficking charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
Rodríguez did not address the referendum in her remarks, but she told the court that the 1966 agreement is designed to allow negotiations between Venezuela and Guyana to resolve the territorial dispute. And she accused Guyana’s government of undermining the agreement with the “opportunistic” decision to ask the court to address the dispute.
“At a time when the mechanisms established in the Geneva agreement were still fully in force, Guyana unilaterally chose to shift the dispute from the negotiating arena to a judicial resolution,” she said. “This change was not accidental; it coincided with the discovery in 2015 of the oil field that would become world-renowned.”
When hearings opened last week, Guyana’s foreign minister, Hugh Hilton Todd, told the panel of international judges that the dispute “has been a blight on our existence as a sovereign state from the very beginning.” He said that 70% of Guyana’s territory is at stake.
The court is likely to take months to issue a final and legally binding ruling in the case.
Venezuela has warned that its participation in the hearings does not mean either consent to, or recognition of, the court’s jurisdiction.
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We all know that this man talks some off the wall stuff sometimes, but you don’t have to take him at his words, but you better do not make the mistake by dismissing his fickle mind. 😂
But he does remind me of another chatty chatty leader 😂. Calling no names..
But hey, people do vote for the mad hatter sometimes, 4 times.. 😂
@ Islandman26 sigh………..Trump is unhinged we know this but he has not done anything other presidents haven’t done yes he might do it in a more extreme manor but nothing new…He says things other Presidents wanna say but are afraid to because of backlash and to protect the image of the USA…..Gaston is a way way waaaaaaayyyyyyy better leader than Larz Jamale Pringle and Harold Lovell could ever dream of being….The people know this and regardless of money or what ever freebs the people trust the ABLP because leadership matters…..Next time maybe we will vote for your mad hatter of choice who can’t even pronounce per capita….I hope if that nightmare ever happens u will be here or on some other platform bashing and criticizing……..
@world.
Hey, at least Trump do not hide from who he is..GB is a fake, an undercover swindler, that’s all he is. He cannot walk in the shoe of those two on any moral ground. There is sin, and then there is evil/wickedness..pick your poison, and I’ve seen that you rate ” leadership” over morality.
I also believe in absolutes, and there are absolutely honest people in this world, and there are absolutely evil people..I can discern both.
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