Videos – GUYANA VS VENEZUELA | THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE BORDER CONTROVERSY

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9 QUICK FACTS ON THE GUYANA/ VENEZUELA CONTROVERSY:

1. The first Europeans to colonise Guyana were the Dutch who arrived at the beginning of the 1600s. The three geographical regions of Guyana were in fact the three colonies of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice. They would have changed hands numerous times between the Dutch and British for the next 200 years, until they were unified in 1831 to become British Guiana. The vestiges of Dutch colonisation can still be found in the Essequibo region and in the names of many parts of the country. During the second half of the nineteenth century, a dispute broke out between Venezuela and Great Britain over the location of the border between its colony of British Guiana and the Spanish-speaking republic. It continued until an Arbitral Tribunal was empaneled in 1897 to determine the borders and issued an Arbitral Award on October 3, 1899. Subsequently, a Joint Commission with representatives from both countries delineated the borders in 1905. It was accepted by both parties for the nearly 63 years until Venezuela alleged that she had been cheated in the Arbitral Award, therefore, it was null and void. In February of 1966, the British and Venezuela signed the Geneva Agreement with the intention of providing Venezuela an opportunity to prove her claim of nullity of the 1899 Arbitral Award. Guyana became a party to that agreement upon attaining independence a few months later. The search for the resolution of the controversy between Guyana and Venezuela has been ongoing for more than fifty (50) years.

2. The Agreement recognised in Article (2) that the issue at hand was …’the task of seeking satisfactory solutions for the practical settlement of the controversy between Venezuela and the United Kingdom which has arisen as the result of the Venezuelan contention that the Arbitral Award of 1899 about the frontier between British Guiana and Venezuela is null and void.’

3. The Agreement does not state or imply that there is a territorial dispute between the Parties or that there is a matter wherein the border between the two countries is unsettled. What it recognises and seeks to resolve is the Venezuelan contention that the Award of 1899 is null and void. Venezuela has worked hard over the years at turning the controversy about her contention of invalidity of the Arbitral Award into a dispute about territory.

4. The Geneva Agreement further provides for a series of procedures starting with the now defunct Mixed Commission and continuing through the means of settlement “stipulated in Article 33 of the Charter of the United Nations”.
5. The matter was referred to Secretary General of the United Nations, who chose the Good Offices Process in 1989. However, in 2012, after careful consideration, the Government of Guyana had taken the decision to review its options within and consistent with the Geneva Agreement as it did not appear that Venezuela was willing to meet its obligations under the Process.

6. Despite the treaty obligations, juridical delimitation, acceptance of the Award, the fact that Venezuela acted in accordance with it for nearly 63 years and the existence of the Good Offices Process, Venezuela has consistently embarked on a pattern of subversion, threats and intimidation in order to fulfil her territorial ambitions and/or force concession by Guyana.

7. Venezuelan atrocities over the years have included, but are not limited to, the unjustified killing of a Guyanese citizen by Venezuelan armed forces in 2006; the apprehension of a vessel conducting seismic studies in Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone by the Venezuelan navy; protests to and threats against companies involved in economic partnership with the Government of Guyana; and the mobilization of military troops along the border with Guyana.

8. On 15 December 2016, the former UN Secretary General, His Excellency Ban Ki Moon, informed the Presidents of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, of his decision under Article IV (2) of the 1966 Geneva Agreement as to the means of settlement of the controversy between Guyana and Venezuela which has arisen as the result of the Venezuelan contention that the Arbitral Award of 1899 about the frontier between British Guiana and Venezuela is null and void.

9. The Secretary General informed that the Good Offices Process will continue for one final year, until the end of 2017, with a strengthened mandate of mediation. If, by the end of 2017, Secretary General António Guterres concludes that significant progress has not been made toward arriving at a full agreement for the solution of the controversy, he will choose the International Court of Justice as the next means of settlement, unless [the Governments of Guyana and Venezuela] jointly request that he refrain from doing so.
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