Guyana–Venezuela territorial dispute

The territory, excluding the Venezuelan-controlled Ankoko Island, is controlled by Guyana as part of six of its regions,[note 1] based on the 1899 Paris Arbitral Award.

[5] Tensions worsened after the discovery of gold mines in the region in 1876, culminating with Venezuelan president Antonio Guzmán Blanco severing diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom in 1887.

[6] Should there be a stalemate, according to the treaty, the decision as to the means of settlement is to be referred to an "appropriate international organ" or, failing agreement on this point, to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

[16] In 1581, on the banks of the Pomeroon River, Dutch colonists from Zeeland established a trading post and were colonizing the land situated west of the Essequibo.

[18] To protect the Araya salt flats, the "white gold" of the time, from English, French, and Dutch incursions, the Spanish Crown ordered the construction of a military fortress, which they finished building at the beginning of the year 1625.

In 1720 it had 246 people, and a budget of 31,923 strong pesos per year to which is added the serious damage to the structure caused by the earthquake in 1684 and later the devastating effects of the hurricane that flooded the salt flats in 1725.

[27] Spanish authorities, in a report dated 10 July 1788, put forward an official claim against the Dutch expansion over her territory, and proposed a borderline:[citation needed]It has been stated that the south bank of the Orinoco from the point of Barima, 20 leagues more or less inland, up to the creek of Curucima, is low-lying and swampy land and, consequently, reckoning all this tract as useless, very few patches of fertile land being found therein, and hardly any savannahs and pastures, it is disregarded; so taking as chief base the said creek of Curucima, or the point of the chain and ridge in the great arm of the Imataka, an imaginary line will be drawn running to the south-south-east following the slopes of the ridge of the same name which is crossed by the rivers Aguire, Arature and Amacuro, and others, in the distance of 20 leagues, direct to the Cuyuni; from there it will run on to the Masaruni and Essequibo, parallel to the sources of the Berbis and Surinama; this is the directing line of the course which the new Settlements and foundations proposed must follow.Dutch slaves in Essequibo and Demerara recognised the Orinoco River as the boundary between Spanish and Dutch Guiana, with slaves often attempting to cross the Orinoco to live with increased, though limited, liberties in Spanish Guiana.

[29] In 1822 José Rafael Revenga, Minister Plenipotentiary of Gran Colombia to Britain, complained to the British government at the direction of Simón Bolívar about the presence of British settlers in territory claimed by Venezuela: "The colonists of Demerara and Berbice have usurped a large portion of land, which according to recent treaties between Spain and Holland, belongs to our country at the west of Essequibo River.

[citation needed] In October 1886 Britain declared the Schomburgk Line to be the provisional frontier of British Guiana, and in February 1887 Venezuela severed diplomatic relations.

President Grover Cleveland adopted a broad interpretation of the Doctrine that did not just simply forbid new European colonies but declared an American interest in any matter within the hemisphere.

[39] With the Treaty of Washington, Great Britain and Venezuela both agreed that the arbitral ruling in Paris would be a "full, perfect, and final settlement"[39] (Article XIII) to the border dispute.

[32] One deviation was that Venezuela received Barima Point at the mouth of the Orinoco, giving it undisputed control of the river, and thus the ability to levy duties on Venezuelan commerce.

[citation needed] Immediately after the arbitration ruling in 1899, the US counsels for Venezuela, former US President Benjamin Harrison, Severo Mallet-Prevost, Benjamin F. Tracy, James R. Soley, and José María Rojas, were interviewed jointly, and stated their first claims against the ruling: "The award gives Point Barima, with a strip of land fifty miles long, to Venezuela, which thereby obtains entire control of the River Orinoco.

Representing Venezuela, Abraham Tirado and Elias Toro surveyed the area of the boundary in accordance with the Award, along with two British surveyors who all signed off on the border in 1905.

Mallet-Prevost said that the American judges and Venezuelan counsel were disgusted at the situation and considered the 3 to 2 option with a strongly worded minority opinion, but ultimately went along with Martens to avoid depriving Venezuela of even more territory.

In his exposition, he stressed that Venezuela considered the Paris Arbitration as null and void because of "acts contrary to good faith" of the British government and the Tribunal members.

It claimed that the referees exceeded the scope of powers granted by the arbitration treaty in 1897[citation needed] when it drew the border between British Guiana, Brazil, and Suriname, and also decreed freedom of navigation in the Amacuro and Barima rivers The Venezuelan claim of the nullity of the 1899 ruling has been acknowledged by several foreign scholars and jurists, such as J. Gillis Wetter of Sweden, in his work The International Arbitral Process (1979), awarded by the American Society of International Law.

Therefore, the Guyana-Essequibo territory over which Venezuela expressly reserves its sovereign rights, limits on the east by the new State of Guyana, through the middle line of the Essequibo River, beginning from its source and on to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean.Five months after Guyana's independence, Venezuelan troops began their occupation of Ankoko island and surrounding islands in October 1966 with Venezuelan troops quickly constructing military installations and an airstrip.

[51] The rebellion was primarily led by ranch owners in the Rupununi district who thought their land rights would be revoked by the new government of Prime Minister Forbes Burnham following the 1968 Guyanese general election.

[61][62] Members of the failed uprising fled to Venezuela for protection after their plans unraveled, with Valerie Hart and her rebels being granted Venezuelan citizenship by birth since they were recognised as being born in the Essequibo disputed territory.

[58] In late February to early March 1969, Amerindian leaders met with Prime Minister Burnham to declare loyalty to the Guyanese government and condemn the reported involvement of Venezuela.

[58] In 1970, after the expiration of the Mixed Commission established according to the Geneva Agreement of 1966, Presidents Rafael Caldera and Forbes Burnham signed the Port of Spain Protocol.

"[67] In 1983, when the Port of Spain Protocol expired, the Venezuelan President Luis Herrera Campins decided to not extend it, resuming his country's effective claim over the territory.

Since then, the contacts between Venezuela and Guyana within the provisions of the Treaty of Geneva are under the recommendations of a UN Secretary General's representative which can occasionally be changed with the agreement of both parties.

[68] The 2006 changes to the flag of Venezuela included the addition of an eighth star to represent the previously existing Guayana Province[69] and was seen as an attempt for Chávez to establish his legacy.

[76] In May the government of Guyana announced that ExxonMobil had indeed found promising results in their first round of drilling on the so-called Stabroek Block, an area offshore the Essequibo territory with a size of 26,800 km2 (10,300 sq mi).

[83] Venezuela proposed that Guyana restore the diplomatic contacts to attempt to find a solution regarding the territorial dispute, arguing that Guterres "exceeded the competences given to him as the Good Offices Figure" and that the decision "contravenes the spirit, purpose and reason of the Geneva Agreement".

[68] The oral audiences were planned to take place from 23 to 27 March 2020,[91] in which the ICJ would determine if they held jurisdiction in the dispute, however this was delayed indefinitely due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.

[101] The proposed referendum was condemned by the Commonwealth of Nations and Caribbean Community (CARICOM), who both issued statements in support of Guyana and the agreed ICJ process for dispute resolution.

[9] According to some interpretations of Venezuelan legislation, Guayana Esequiba is an integral part of the jurisdiction of the states of Bolívar and Delta Amacuro, whose common boundary runs along the cusp of the Imataka mountain range.