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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Venezuela<\/a><\/span> \u2019s acting President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez<\/a><\/span> told journalists Monday that her country had no plans to become the 51st U.S. state after President Donald Trump<\/a><\/span> said he was \u201cseriously considering\u201d the move.<\/p>\n Rodr\u00edguez 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<\/a><\/span>. <\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue to defend our integrity, our sovereignty, our independence, our history,\u201d said Rodr\u00edguez, who assumed power in January following a U.S. military operation that ousted then-President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a><\/span>. Venezuela is \u201cnot a colony, but a free country,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n Speaking to Fox News earlier on Monday, Trump said he was \u201cseriously considering making Venezuela the 51st US state,\u201d according to a post by Fox News\u2019 co-anchor John Roberts on social media<\/a><\/span>. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.<\/p>\n Trump has made similar comments about Canada<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n White House spokesperson Anna Kelly later declined to comment on Trump\u2019s plans in an interview of her own with Roberts on Fox News. Kelly said the president is \u201cfamous for never accepting the status quo,\u201d and praised Rodr\u00edguez for \u201cworking incredibly cooperatively\u201d with the U.S. <\/p>\n Rodr\u00edguez went on to say that Venezuelan and U.S. officials have been in touch and are working on \u201ccooperation and understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n Before addressing Trump\u2019s comments, Rodr\u00edguez defended her country\u2019s claim to Essequibo at the United Nations\u2019 highest court, telling judges that political negotiations \u2014 not a judicial ruling \u2014 will resolve the century-old territorial dispute.<\/p>\n 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<\/a><\/span> currently producing an average 900,000 barrels a day.<\/p>\n That output is close to Venezuela\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s government went to the International Court of Justice and asked judges to uphold the 1899 ruling. <\/p>\n Tensions between the countries further flared in 2023, when Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s predecessor, Maduro, threatened to annex the region by force after holding a referendum asking voters if Essequibo should be turned into a Venezuelan state<\/a><\/span>. Maduro was captured Jan. 3 during a U.S. military operation in Venezuela\u2019s capital, Caracas, and taken to New York to face drug trafficking charges. He has pleaded not guilty.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Rodr\u00edguez 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\u2019s government of undermining the agreement with the \u201copportunistic\u201d decision to ask the court to address the dispute.<\/p>\n \u201cAt 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,\u201d she said. \u201cThis change was not accidental; it coincided with the discovery in 2015 of the oil field that would become world-renowned.\u201d<\/p>\n