WE again make an offering on the Guyana–Venezuela Border Controversy because Guyanese must always be aware of it and never relax their guard, since if ever they do, the treacherous and apparently demented adversary will step up his mindless aggression, as he has been doing in a steady crescendo over the last several weeks. President Maduro and Venezuela have become universally isolated since even Russia, China and Cuba will not positively support their aggression against Guyana’s territory and break international law since Guyana is an older friend of these three nations. President Maduro and his entourage, in their isolation, seem to be afflicted with a dangerous desperation, which partly manifests itself in their making false declarations and spreading misinformation. Below, we will give a short résumé of the Controversy and the Venezuelan misinformation:

In 1831, the colonies of Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice were united into the colony of British Guiana. The western boundaries of the colony were not properly demarcated, and in the 1840s, the colonial government engaged the German surveyor and explorer, Robert Schomburgk, to demarcate the boundary. Schomburgk duly completed his work, largely guided by the territory that the Dutch had occupied, but Venezuela objected to the Schomburgk Line, claiming that it had taken in Venezuelan territory. Venezuela made attempts to have Britain and itself review the boundary, but such discussions never materialised. Venezuela then approached the USA to take up its case with Britain. Venezuela wished the issue to be settled by Arbitration. In the 1890s, the USA put much pressure on Britain to have the Dispute adjudicated by Arbitration, with President Cleveland even threatening war.

In 1897, the Arbitral Court—with Melville Fuller, Chief Justice of the United States, and David Brewer, also a US High Court Judge, representing the Venezuelan side, and Lord Russell and Lord Henna Collins, equally distinguished jurists, representing the British side, with Frederick de Martens, a distinguished Russian jurist, as Chairman—went to work. The archives of Britain, Holland, and Spain were thoroughly searched, and in 1899, the Arbitral Award was made as a full, final, and perfect settlement that set the present borders of Guyana. Immediately after, between 1901 and 1905, the boundary was physically demarcated by Venezuelan and British surveyors. Venezuela accepted the present boundary as full, final and perfect until 1962, when Guyana was about to be granted Independence. Venezuela now claimed that the boundary was incorrect and opposed the grant of Independence to Guyana. Britain was anxious to withdraw from Guyana, and so the Geneva Agreement was arrived at, allowing for the Controversy to be settled after Independence, which was granted in May 1966. Between 1966 and 2018, a four-year period of negotiation was tried and failed, followed by a 12-year period of trying to get matters on the rails, followed by a long period of “Good Offices” meetings which failed to bear any fruit. The matter was then transferred to the Secretary-General of the United Nations in 2018 so that he could prescribe a solution. He ordered that the Controversy be given to the International Court of Justice to be adjudicated; Guyana agreed, but Venezuela claimed that the Court had no jurisdiction. The Court affirmed that it had jurisdiction, and the case is now before the ICJ, which has ordered that neither party should take any action to disturb the present status quo. Venezuela has not honoured this ruling of the ICJ but continues to carry out a series of aggressive actions against Guyana. An important aspect of its aggression is to propagate misinformation about the Controversy, and below we give four of the most used:

(i) Venezuela claims that no Venezuelan was among the arbitrators representing Venezuela’s position and, as such, prima facie, Venezuela does not recognise the Arbitration and its decision. The truth and fact is that it is Venezuela which insisted on the use of Arbitration as the method of settling the Dispute, and it is they who agreed to the legal team representing the Venezuelan case, which consisted of Melville Fuller, Chief Justice of the USA, and his colleague High Court Judge, David Brewer, and their supporting legal team—Benjamin Harrison, Benjamin F. Tracy, James Soley and Severo Mallet-Prevost. Venezuela chose those distinguished jurists since there was no Venezuelan of equal calibre. Venezuela positively endorsed the legal team representing her case and could not claim she had no representation when this team were, in effect, her agents.

(ii) Venezuela asserts that it never accepted the Arbitral Award and the boundaries it set for Guyana. Venezuela’s assertion belies the facts. Venezuela celebrated the Arbitral Award as a victory, and there was much rejoicing in Caracas, and postage stamps were issued commemorating the event. The Venezuelan Ambassador to Britain at the time remarked that the Arbitration had assigned the Orinoco Delta to them and that was their main interest. Further, in 1931, they participated in the ceremony held at Mount Roraima where the borders of Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana met, and Venezuelan maps delineated Guyana’s present boundaries. The first objection to Guyana’s boundaries was made only in 1962.

(iii) Venezuela claimed that they had no part in demarcating Guyana’s boundaries. The facts are different: After the Arbitral Award was made, Venezuela insisted that the boundary be immediately demarcated, and between 1901 and 1905 Venezuelan and British surveyors demarcated the boundaries, with the joint paals still existing. Venezuela itself demarcated the boundary and could not truthfully deny that they did.

(iv) Venezuela claims that Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) belongs to them, and Guyana-licensed prospectors for oil are operating in its EEZ and doing so illegally. Guyana’s EEZ is the sea contiguous to Guyana’s landmass and is so recognised by international law and by all countries, and Venezuela knows this but is traitorously trying to seize Guyana’s territory and scare away investors.

Finally, Venezuela is completely isolated, since Russia, China, and Cuba will not support her in the invasion of Guyana or seizure of Guyana’s territory, and, like a caged animal, is trying to bully Guyana into speaking with her to relieve the isolation and cause Guyana’s friends and allies to drop their guard. President Ali, with great dignity, told President Maduro that Venezuela has been carrying on continuous aggression against Guyana and has been ignoring the Argyle Declaration and could not dialogue in such a toxic milieu.