President
David Granger
Guyana/Venezuela
border controversy
President
David Granger has once again committed to bringing an end to the decades-old
border controversy between Guyana and neighbouring Venezuela, telling a group
of diplomats and business executives that he would be going the route of
judicial intervention no matter the cost.
The Head of
State made the pronouncement when he addressed members of the Private Sector
Commission (PSC), at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Monday. Venezuela has
been bent on seeking to prove that it owns part of Guyana, despite a decision
handed down by the Arbitral Tribunal agreed to by both Venezuela and Great
Britain, the colonial masters of British Guyana, in the 1899
Arbitral Award that determined the border.
“We have to
deal with this. One hundred and fifty years ago, this matter was settled …,”
the Head of State said, noting that the part of Guyana’s territory being
claimed by Venezuela has an abundance of resources.
Guyana had
committed to taking the judicial route of action earlier this year, after years
of committing to the Good Offices Process. Government had declared that the
process was yielding little or no results. In a statement at the opening of
Guyana’s 11th Parliament on June 10, Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge
called on Venezuela in joining this nation in moving to the courts to pursue a
judicial settlement of the controversy.
“We, therefore,
expect them now to join in our approach to the UN Secretary General
under the Geneva Agreement for a judicial settlement of
their questioning of the validity of the 1899 Award…” Greenidge had
said in a subsequent statement. He said Guyana has never strayed from the path
of friendship with Venezuela, adding that bringing the matter to an end by due
process of international law, as was proposed by Guyana, would be
a gift to future generations in both countries
Shadow
The Foreign
Affairs Minister pointed out that for the past 49 years, Guyana has been living
under the shadow of Venezuela’s illegal claims. He added that in order to
ensure that the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are not
compromised, a definite solution has to be found that will put Venezuela’s
contention of nullity to rest.
The Vice
President outlined that the Good Offices Process adopted under the Geneva
Agreement of 1966, which has been in place as a means of peaceful settlement of
the issue between the two countries, has failed to resolve the territorial issue
and with this new decree, the contentious gap between the neighbouring
countries has widened. As such, Greenidge opined that the only way forward may
be through a judicial settlement.
Venezuelan
President Nicolas Maduro had last Thursday postponed the session of the
National Assembly which he was expected to attend to establish a position in
defence of the territorial dispute between his country and Guyana over space in
the Essequibo. He had reported his visit to the plenary session “to present the
official position to defend the historical claim, the dispute over the
Essequibo, and to seek national unity, to ask for support from across the
country to face the challenge of ExxonMobil,” reported the state-run AVN news.
“I’m going to
denounce international manoeuvre of the right to provoke Venezuela with
problems with neighbouring countries, and I’ll summon the civil union and the
military to defend our country, our land and our historical positions,” Maduro
had said. The decades-old controversy began in the 1800s when Guyana was a
colony of the British. A Tribunal of Arbitration finalised its decision on
October 3, 1899, awarding unanimously to Britain almost 90 per cent of the
disputed territory.
Final
settlement
Venezuela, up
until now, has not accepted the 1899 Award as a final settlement of the border
dispute although it only made its contention international in 1945. In 1949,
the US jurist Otto Schoenrich gave the Venezuelan Government a memorandum
written by Severo Mallet-Prevost, the Official Secretary of the US-Venezuela
delegation in the Tribunal of Arbitration, which was written in 1944 to be
published only after his death. Mallet-Prevost, one of the four lawyers who had
appeared for Venezuela before the Arbitral Tribunal, surmised from the private
behaviour of the judges that there had been a political deal between Great
Britain and Russia and for the first time, attacked the Award. This memorandum
led to Venezuela’s revival of its claim to Guyana’s territory.
In 1966 in
Geneva, Switzerland, the Governments of British Guiana, the United Kingdom and
Venezuela signed an agreement to resolve Venezuela’s contentions. Since the
issue has sporadically flared up and has not been resolved.
The issue
reignited in early March when the Government of Guyana granted access to the
United States-based oil exploration company ExxonMobil, allowing it to drill
for oil in the Stabroek block offshore Essequibo.
The
Venezuelan Government was peeved at this move and made direct contact with the
oil company, urging it to discontinue its attempt to carry out drilling
activities in the area. Saying it had no part in the territorial issue, the oil
company went ahead with its drilling activity. It recently reported the
discovery of oil. Maduro later issued a decree on May 26, which purports to
ratify maritime sovereignty over waters within 200 miles including the entire
Atlantic Ocean off the Essequibo Coast as well as part of Suriname’s maritime
territory and an area which is under dispute with Colombia.
2005 La
Guayana Esequiba – Zona en Reclamación. Instituto Geográfico Simón Bolívar Primera Edición
Nota del
editor del blog:
Al referenciarse a la República Cooperativa de
Guyana se deben de tener en cuenta los 159.500Km2, de territorios ubicados al
oeste del río Esequibo conocidos con el nombre de Guayana Esequiba o Zona en
Reclamación sujetos al Acuerdo de Ginebra del 17 de febrero de 1966.
Territorios estos sobre los cuales el Gobierno
Venezolano en representación de la Nación venezolana se reservo sus derechos
sobre los territorios de la Guayana Esequiba en su nota del 26 de mayo de 1966
al reconocerse al nuevo Estado de Guyana:
“...por lo tanto, Venezuela reconoce como
territorio del nuevo Estado, el que se sitúa al este de la margen derecha del
río Esequibo y reitera ante la comunidad internacional, que se reserva
expresamente sus derechos de soberanía territorial sobre la zona que se
encuentra en la margen izquierda del precitado río; en consecuencia, el
territorio de la Guayana Esequiba sobre el cual Venezuela se reserva
expresamente sus derechos soberanos, limita al Este con el nuevo Estado de
Guyana, a través de la línea del río Esequibo, tomando éste desde su nacimiento
hasta su desembocadura en el Océano Atlántico...”
LA GUAYANA ESEQUIBA
http://laguayanaesequiba.blogspot.com/2008/01/la-guayana-esequiba.html
Terminología sobre cómo referenciar la
Zona en Reclamación-Guayana Esequiba.
Mapa que señala el
Espacio de Soberanía Marítima Venezolana que se reserva, como Mar Territorial mediante el Decreto Presidencial No 1152 del 09
de Julio de 1968
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