ON FEBRUARY 17, 2017 marked the 51st Anniversary of the signing of the Geneva Agreement. As with any anniversary this must become a moment for sober reflection and a time to take decisions about the future. By any stretch of the imagination Guyana, a small state in the international system, has carried out its obligations under this Agreement in an exemplary manner. Guyana has not violated its various clauses nor has it engaged in acts of aggression against its Western neighbour, even in the face of the most glaring provocation as was seen only recently. And this could only be because Guyana, from the advent of independence, has declared that it seeks peaceful and productive relations with all states and has refused to engage in policies which are likely to undermine the peaceful development and security of the region in which it finds itself.

On February 17, as CARICOM Heads of Government were deliberating on the threats to the peace and security of the region, the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, urged Venezuelans to strengthen their resolve to its claim of the Essequibo under the fake slogan ‘Venezuela’s sun rises in the Essequibo.’

The slogan is false because it is built on lies; on the distortion of history; on the renunciation of solemn treaties and on the abandonment of sacred principles of international law. The Venezuelan Foreign Minister used the occasion of a Foreign Ministry function to mark the 51st Anniversary of the Geneva Agreement, to peddle the outrageous falsity in Caracas “that the Geneva Agreement recognised the sovereignty that Venezuela had over the Essequibo and declared null, the Arbitral Award laid down in 1899”.

The truth, it would appear, does not inhibit Venezuela in pursuit of its vulgar acquisitive ambitions. This is true, too, of media outlets that serve their unjust cause – like teleSUR, in its contrived article of February 17, 2017: Trump’s New Weapon Against Venezuela: Oil-Rich Essequibo?  The article is built around distortion. It alleges that recent oil discovery offshore Guyana is in the Essequibo region and so ‘in Venezuela’.

Guyana has expressed its desire for this controversy to be settled juridical and through intense lobby, the United Nations late last year ruled that the Good Offices Process will be given one more year to work, failing which the matter will be sent to the International Court of Justice for a final decision. From Caracas’ actions last, we must press on with ensuring that our morally and legally sound case is submitted to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for a settlement. Both our President and our Foreign Minister have recognised that the Good Officer process allows Venezuela to prolong the Border controversy, while engaging in frequent acts of aggression. The President in particular, in addressing the issue of the fiftieth anniversary of the Geneva Agreement last year, is quoted as saying that he was “fed up with Venezuelan aggression and harassment.” This is an understandable statement, in view of the fact that the aggression has been going on from the time of our independence.
We urge our Government to continue educating the citizenry on this issue so as a nation everyone is fully informed about its implications for the future development of the nation. An extended period of education might be in order, modeled on what transpired in the seventies and eighties. One lesson this nation has learnt over the years is that a united, informed and prepared nation is more than a match for an aggressive Caracas. A diplomacy founded on these factors is most likely to be successful.

Even though it claims to be an adherent of the great Simon Bolivar and signed the Geneva Agreement, various Governments of Venezuela have engaged in naked aggression against Guyana, in violation of international norms and peaceful practices. It has seized Guyana’s territory even while the Mixed Commission, established by the Geneva Agreement, met. Caracas has been the architect of several incidents on our border. And it has engaged in the exercise of economic aggression against a small state with the expressed purpose of frustrating and delaying its development. Only recently, in an act which is unprecedented in this region, the President of Venezuela issued decree claiming sovereignty over Guyana’s territorial waters.

It is ironical that these acts of aggression are based on a perverse interpretation of the Geneva Agreement, which says that it is not an instrument for proving the Venezuelan contention to nullify but an opportunity to seize Guyana’s land and territorial waters. This is a perversion of international law and it must be added here that Venezuela is not only deliberately misinterpreting the Geneva Agreement but has also declared war on it, if the recent statement by the Foreign Minister of Venezuela is anything to go by.

Ultimately, the Guyana Government and the Guyanese people have no quarrel with the people of Venezuela. This is the twenty first century. There is no place here for nineteenth century notions of grabbing the land and territorial waters of a small and neighbouring country. Guyana and Caracas over the years have cooperated successfully in many important areas such as medicine and trade. If Caracas can find it possible to abandon outmoded notions of power an era of cooperation can be opened up between our two countries. The Geneva Agreement makes provision for such a peaceful and enlightened development.