evidence: El Gulf of venezuela (or Gulf of Coquivacoa for Colombians) is a body of water located in the north of South America, which in its greater proportion occupies the territorial waters of Venezuela. A small part of the gulf is located off the coast of La Guajira de Colombia, which is why there have been many disputes between both countries as they cannot define the maritime border. [...] The limits of the Gulf of Venezuela are marked by the Guajira Peninsula (Colombia) to the west and Paraguaná Peninsula (Venezuela) to the east. To the north, the Archipelago of the Monks it is considered the natural border between the gulf and the open waters of the Caribbean Sea. To the south, the coasts of the Venezuelan states of Zulia and Falcón. Between them the Maracaibo Canal, which connects the waters of the Gulf with those of the Gulf of Maracaibo, a kind of Venezuelan inland sea. [...] The Gulf of Venezuela has great strategic and economic importance. On a strategic level, as it is the connecting route between the Gulf of Maracaibo and the Atlantic Ocean; economically, due to the presence under its seabed of important bags of oil and natural gas.