Guyana–Venezuela territorial dispute

In 2023, the population of Essequibo was estimated to be around 125,000 inhabitants, 15.8% of the total population of Guyana. == Colonial history ==

Before the arrival of European colonizers, the Guianas were populated by different groups of indigenous peoples. The Warao people are considered to be the first inhabitants of Guyana, followed by the Lokono and Kalina people. The native tribes of the Northern Amazon are most closely related to the natives of the Caribbean. Most evidence suggests that the Lokono immigrated from the Orinoco and Essequibo River Basins in Venezuela and Guiana into the northern islands, and were then supplanted by more warlike tribes of Carib Indians, who departed from these same river valleys a few centuries later. Spain had already claimed ownership of this region, as per the papal bull issued by Pope Alexander VI and the Treaty of Tordesillas. The treaty was not signed nor recognized by other colonial nations, such as the Dutch or the English which disputed papal authority and continued to colonize the area, nor was it recognized by most indigenous peoples of the Americas. 15th century The first European encounter of the region was by the ships of Juan de Esquivel, deputy of Don Diego Columbus, son of Christopher Columbus, in 1498. The region was named after Esquivel. In 1499, Amerigo Vespucci and Alonso de Ojeda explored the mouths of the Orinoco, and reportedly were the first Europeans to explore the Essequibo. In 1597, Dutch interest in travelling to the Guianas became common following the publication of The Discovery of Guiana by Sir Walter Raleigh. On 3 December 1597, a Dutch expedition left Brielle and travelled the coasts between the Amazon and Orinoco. The report, written by A. Cabeljau and described as having "more realistic information about the region" than that of Raleigh, showed how the Dutch had travelled the Orinoco and Caroní River, discovering dozens of rivers and other previously unknown lands. Cabeljau wrote of good relations with the natives and that the Spanish were friendly when they encountered them in San Tomé. By 1598, Dutch ships frequented Guiana to establish settlements. In 1648 Spain signed the Peace of Münster with the Dutch Republic, whereby Spain recognised the Republic's independence and also small Dutch possessions located east of the Essequibo River, which had been founded by the Dutch Republic before it was recognised by Spain. However, a few decades after the Peace of Münster, the Dutch began to spread gradually west of the Essequibo River, inside the Spanish Guayana Province. These new settlements were regularly contested and destroyed by the Spanish authorities. Serious Dutch colonisation west of the Essequibo began in the early 1650s, while the colony of Pomeroon was being established between the Moruka River and Pomeroon River. Many of these colonists were Dutch-Brazilian Jews who had left Pernambuco. In 1673, Dutch settlements were established as far as the Barima River. between the Low Orinoco and the Barima River. Nevertheless, by 1737 Major Sergeant Carlos Francisco de Sucre y Pardo (Antonio de Sucre's grandfather) expelled them from the forts at Barima, preventing the Swedish attempt at colonization for the time being. By 1745, the Dutch had several territories in the region, including Essequibo, Demerara, Berbice, and Surinam. Domingos, Bandeira Jerónimo and Roque described Essequibo and Demerara as "sophisticated and promising slave colonies". 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. == 19th century ==

Under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, the Dutch colonies of Demerara, Berbice and Essequibo were transferred to the United Kingdom. By this time, the Dutch had defended the territory from the British, French, and Spanish for nearly two centuries, 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. It is absolutely essential that these settlers be put under the jurisdiction and obedience to our laws, or be withdrawn to their former possessions." In 1824 Venezuela appointed Manuel José Hurtado as its new Ambassador to Britain. He officially presented to the British government the Venezuelan claim to the border at the Essequibo River, which was not objected to by Britain. However, the British government continued to promote colonization of territory west of the Essequibo River in succeeding years. In 1831, Britain merged the former Dutch territories of Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo into a single colony, British Guiana. Schomburgk Line Under the aegis of the Royal Geographical Society, the German-born explorer and naturalist Robert Hermann Schomburgk conducted botanical and geographical exploration of British Guiana in 1835. This resulted in a sketch of the territory with a line marking what he believed to be the western boundary claimed by the Dutch. As a result of this, he was commissioned in 1840 by the British government to survey Guiana's boundaries. This survey resulted in what came to be known as the "Schomburgk Line". The line went well beyond the area of British occupation and gave British Guiana control of the mouth of the Orinoco River. According to Schomburgk, it did not contain all the area that Britain might legitimately claim. Venezuela disputed Schomburgk's placing of border markers at the Orinoco River, and in 1844 claimed all of Guiana west of the Essequibo River. In the same year, a British proposal to Venezuela to modify the border to give Venezuela full control of the Orinoco River mouth and adjacent territory was ignored. In 1850, Britain and Venezuela reached an agreement whereby they accepted not to colonise the disputed territory, although it was not established where this territory began and ended. In 1876, gold mines inhabited mainly by English-speaking people had been established in the Cuyuni basin, which was Venezuelan territory beyond the Schomburgk line but within the area Schomburgk thought Britain could claim. That year, Venezuela reiterated its claim up to the Essequibo River, to which the British responded with a counterclaim including the entire Cuyuni basin, although this was a paper claim the British never intended to pursue. British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury and British ambassador to the US Lord Pauncefote both misjudged the importance the American government placed on the dispute. The key issue in the crisis became Britain's refusal to include the territory east of the Schomburgk Line in the proposed international arbitration. Ultimately Britain backed down and tacitly accepted the US right to intervene under the Monroe Doctrine. This US intervention forced Britain to accept arbitration of the entire disputed territory. Treaty of Washington and arbitration , including western boundary ceded to Venezuela The Treaty of Arbitration between the UK and Venezuela was signed in Washington on 2 February 1897. This treaty specifically stipulated the legal framework for the arbitration, its first article stating that "An Arbitral Tribunal shall be immediately appointed to determine the boundary-line between the Colony of British Guiana and the United States of Venezuela." The Treaty provided the legal framework, procedures, and conditions for the Tribunal to solve the issue and reach to determine a border. Its third article established that "The Tribunal shall investigate and ascertain the extent of the territories belonging to, or that might lawfully be claimed by the United Netherlands or by the Kingdom of Spain respectively at the time of the acquisition by Great Britain of the Colony of British Guiana, and shall determine the boundary line between the Colony of British Guiana and the United States of Venezuela". The Treaty also established the rules and principles to be followed by the Tribunal to draw the borderline. 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" (Article XIII) to the border dispute. Venezuela argued that Spain–whose territory they had acquired–controlled land from the Orinoco River to the Amazon River in present-day Brazil. In April 1899 the rival claims were presented in Paris to a tribunal of five arbitrators: two from Britain, two from the US (representing Venezuela's interest), and one from Russia, who were presumed neutral. The U.S. represented Venezuela on the panel in part because the Venezuelan government had broken off diplomatic relations with Britain. On 3 October 1899 the Tribunal ruled largely in favour of Britain. The Schomburgk Line was, with two deviations, established as the border between British Guiana and Venezuela. The Venezuelan representatives, claiming that Britain had unduly influenced the decision of the Russian member of the tribunal, protested the outcome. Periodic protests, however, were confined to the domestic political arena and international diplomatic forums. The evolutions of subdivisions, régions, provinces, départements, districts of Venezuela since 1830: Venezuela (1840).svg|1840 Venezuela (1856).svg|1856 Venezuela (1901).svg|1901 Venezuela (1909).svg|1909 Venezuela (1990).svg|1990 Immediate reactions n and British boundary that was made legally binding in 1905, following the Arbitral Award of 1899. 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. Three thousand square miles in the interior are also awarded to Venezuela. Thus, by a decision in which the British arbitrators concurred, the position taken by Great Britain in 1895 is shown to be unfounded. This, however, in no wise expresses the full extent of Venezuela's victory. Great Britain had claimed 30, 000 square miles of territory west of the Schonburgk line and this she was disposed to arbitrate in 1890. Every foot of that section is now awarded to Venezuela. The award practically endorses the judgment of Sir Robert Schomburgk, whose line it follows except in a few particulars. Great Britain acquires the whole of the river Cuyni, including a site which Venezuela alleged to be a fort at the junction of the Curum and the Cuyuni. The marshy Barima district has been awarded to Venezuela, possibly on the principle of national security, but the condition that the Orinoco shall be a free waterway to all nations. This piece of land covers about thirty square miles. It had been offered with much more land by every British foreign minister since the time of Lord Aberdeen. Great Britain has substantiated almost all her extreme claims. All the valuable plantations and gold fields are now indisputably settled within British territory."'''' The Venezuelan government showed almost immediate disapproval with the 1899 Arbitral Award. As early as 7 October 1899, Venezuela voiced its condemnation of the Award, and demanded the renegotiation of her eastern border with British Guiana: that day, Venezuelan Foreign Minister José Andrade stated that the Arbitral Award was the product of political collusion and it should not be adhered to by Venezuela. In accordance with the 1899 Arbitral Award, a mixed British-Venezuelan Boundary Commission began work in 1900 to demarcate the border. Representing Venezuela, Abraham Tirado, Carlos Grisanti and Elias Toro surveyed the area of the boundary by the Award, along with two British surveyors who all signed off on the border in 1905. == 20th century ==

Renewed dispute and the river's drainage basin (shaded dark). Venezuela claims territory up to the western bank of the river. The historical claim by the UK included the river basin well into current-day Venezuela. After numerous bilateral diplomatic attempts failed to convince the United Kingdom of its seriousness to nullify the award, Venezuela denounced it before the first assembly of the United Nations in 1945. and said that the Russian chair of the panel, Friedrich Martens, had visited Britain with the two British arbitrators in the summer of 1899, and subsequently had offered the two American judges a choice between accepting a unanimous award along the lines ultimately agreed, or a 3 to 2 majority opinion even more favourable to the British. By the 1950s, Venezuelan media led grassroots movements demanding the acquisition of the Essequibo. President Pérez Jiménez anticipated the invasion of Guyana in 1958, but was ultimately overthrown in the 1958 Venezuelan coup d'état before this was finalised. However, the parties never agreed to implement a solution within this Commission due to differing interpretations of the agreement: • Guyana argued that, before starting the negotiations over the border issue, Venezuela should prove that the Arbitral Award of 1899 was null and void. Guyana did not accept that the 1899 decision was invalid, and held that its participation on the commission was only to resolve Venezuela's assertions. • Venezuela argued that the Commission did not have a juridical nature or purpose but a deal-making one, so it should go ahead to find "a practical and satisfactory solution", as agreed in the treaty. Venezuela also claimed that the nullity of the Arbitral Award of 1899 was implicit, as otherwise, the existence of the 1966 agreement would be meaningless. The fifth article of the Geneva Agreement established the status of the disputed territories. The provisions state that no acts or activities taking place on the disputed territories while the Agreement is in force "shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim to territorial sovereignty." The agreement also has a provision prohibiting both nations from pursuing the issue except through official inter-government channels. Guyanese independence and the occupation of Ankoko Island 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. Venezuelan minister Ignacio Iribarren Borges replied stating "the Government of Venezuela rejects the aforementioned protest, because Anacoco Island is Venezuelan territory in its entirety and the Republic of Venezuela has always been in possession of it". Rupununi uprising , damaged by rebel bazooka fire during the Rupununi uprising 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. The Guyanese government was in the process of creating a commission for issuing land certificates to indigenous families in the area, though the review of of land was required. At a 23 December 1968 meeting, rebels finalised plans of a separated Rupununi state. Venezuela reportedly supported and equipped the Rupununi rebels and their secession movement. Valerie Hart stayed in the capital of Venezuela, Caracas, while her brothers and the Lawrences participated in the rebellion in Guyana. Rebels armed with machine guns and bazookas began their attacks on Lethem on 2 January 1969, first attacking a police station, killing five police officers along with two civilians while the rebels destroyed buildings belonging to the Guyanese government with bazooka fire. The rebels locked citizens in their homes and blocked airfields in Lethem, Annai Good Hope, Karanambo and Karasabai, attempting to block staging areas for Guyanese troops. The Guyanese government accused Venezuela of assisting the rebels, accusations that the Venezuelan government rejected. 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. The ranchers who organized the rebellion were settled into the Gran Sabana region by the Venezuelan government. while the ten remaining individuals were released later. The Parliament of Guyana voted for the agreement on 22 June 1970, with only People's Progressive Party voting against believing that the United Nations should resolve the matter. At the time, a high-level general of the Brazilian Armed Forces warned Venezuela not to attempt any action against Guyana, saying that it would immediately result in a response from the United Kingdom and the United States. Months before the expiration of the Port of Spain Protocol, prominent Venezuelan politician and former interior minister Reinaldo Leandro Mora said in an interview with Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional that if Guyana attempted to develop parts of the Essequibo, that Venezuela would have to "abandon the channels of peaceful negotiation which our national government aspires to and turn to methods involving action." 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. While diplomatic contacts between the two countries and the Secretary General's representative continue, there have been some clashes. The latest personal representative in these efforts is the Norwegian Dag Nylander, appointed in March 2017 by UN Secretary-General António Guterres. == 21st century ==

Chávez administration President Hugo Chávez eased border tensions with Guyana under advice of his mentor Fidel Castro. In 2004, Chávez said, during a visit in Georgetown, Guyana, that he considered the dispute to be finished. and was seen as an attempt for Chávez to establish his legacy. In September 2011, Guyana made an application before the United Nations' Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in order to extend its continental shelf by a further . Since the Commission requests that the areas to be considered cannot be subject to any kind of territorial disputes, the Guyanese application disregarded the Venezuelan claim over the Essequibo, by saying that "there are no disputes in the region relevant to this submission of data and information relating to the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond ." Venezuela sent an objection to the commission, rejecting the Guyanese application and warning that Guyana had proposed a limit for its continental shelf including "the territory west of the Essequibo river, which is the subject of a territorial sovereignty dispute under the Geneva Agreement of 1966 and, within this framework, a matter for the good offices of the Secretary-General of the United Nations". Venezuela also said that Guyana consulted its neighbours Barbados, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago before making the application, but did not do the same with Venezuela. "Such a lack of consultation with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, serious in itself in that it violates the relevant rules, is inexplicable in so far as the coast whose projection is used by the Republic of Guyana in its attempt to extend the limits forms part of the disputed territory over which Venezuela demands and reiterates its claim to sovereignty rights", said the Venezuelan communiqué. Oil discovery in Guyana On 10 October 2013, the Venezuelan Navy detained an oil exploration vessel conducting seafloor surveys on behalf of the government of Guyana. The ship and its crew were escorted to the Venezuelan Margarita Island to be prosecuted. The Guyanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the vessel was in Guyanese waters, but its Venezuelan counterpart sent a diplomatic note to Guyana stating that the ship was conducting oil research in Venezuelan waters with no authorisation from the country, and demanded an explanation. The vessel, Teknik Perdana, together with its crew, was released the next week, but its captain was charged with violating the Venezuelan exclusive economic zone. Despite diplomatic protests from Venezuela, the government of Guyana awarded the American oil corporation ExxonMobil a licence to drill for oil in the disputed maritime area in early 2015. 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 . The company announced that further drillings would take place in the coming months to better evaluate the potential of the oil field. Venezuela responded to the declaration with a decree issued on 27 May 2015, including the maritime area in dispute in its national marine protection sphere, thus extending the area that the Venezuelan Navy claims into the disputed area. This in turn caused the government of Guyana to summon the Venezuelan ambassador for further explanation. The tensions have further intensified since and Guyana withdrew the operating licence of Conviasa, the Venezuelan national airline, stranding a plane and passengers in Georgetown. On 7 January 2021, there was the issuance of Decree No. 4415 by the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, with the support of Venezuela's National Assembly, which seeks to reinforce Venezuela's claim to Guyana's Essequibo Region and its attendant maritime space. International Court of Justice In the case that by December 2017, the UN understood that there was no "significant progress" in resolving the dispute, the Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres would intend to refer the case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), unless the two countries explicitly requested it not to do so. In January 2018, Guterres concluded that the Good Offices Process had not determined a peaceful conclusion and the UN referred the case. Guterres chose to have the controversy settled by the ICJ on whether the 1899 award was valid. 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". The Venezuelan government also stated that it did not recognise the jurisdiction of the Court as mandatory. On 19 June, Guyana announced that it would ask the Court to rule on their favour, citing Article 53 of the ICJ Statute, which states that "if any of the two parties does not show at the tribunal or fails to defend their case, the other party has the right to communicate with the court and to rule in favour of their claim". In July 2018, the government of Venezuela, led by Nicolás Maduro, argued that the ICJ did not hold jurisdiction over the dispute and said that Venezuela would not participate in the proceedings. The Court stated that Guyana would have until 19 November to present their arguments and Venezuela would have until 18 April 2019 to present their counterarguments. During the Venezuelan presidential crisis, disputed acting President Juan Guaidó and the pro-opposition National Assembly of Venezuela ratified the territorial dispute over the territory. 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. Venezuela did not take part in the hearings which were rescheduled for 30 June. On 18 December 2020, the Court ruled that it had jurisdiction and accepted the case. On 18 September 2020, the United States announced that it would join Guyana on sea patrols in the area. The first agreement in the negotiations between the Maduro government and the Venezuelan opposition in Mexico in September 2021 was to act jointly in the claim of Venezuelan sovereignty over Essequibo. The ICJ ruled that it had jurisdiction to determine the territorial dispute in April 2023. Venezuelan consultative referendum ordered the publication of a new map, including the Esequibo territory, "in all schools, public entities, universities and 'in all homes' in the country" On 31 October 2023, the government of Guyana filed a request with the ICJ requesting intervention against a proposed referendum approved by the Venezuelan National Electoral Council on 23 October 2023, asking to support its position in the dispute, arguing that the referendum served as a pretext for the Venezuelan government to abandon negotiations with Guyana. 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. In response to the increased tensions, the Brazilian military on 29 November 2023 "intensified defensive actions" along its northern border. On 1 December 2023, the ICJ ordered Venezuela to not make any attempts to disrupt the current territory controlled by Guyana until the court makes a later determination. The referendum took place on 3 December, and the National Electoral Council initially reported that Venezuelans voted "yes" more than 95% of the time on each of the five questions on the ballot. International analysts and media reported that turnout had been remarkably low and that the Venezuelan government had falsified the results. There has been no similar consultation conducted, by either Venezuela or Guyana, with the indigenous people of the region. == Venezuelan administrative laws ==

, Venezuelan propaganda cartoon about the Venezuelan referendum on Esequibo, 2023. 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. The state of Bolívar, in its constitution, establishes the following: The original territory of what is now the state of Delta Amacuro extends from the Orinoco delta to the Esequibo River. The information website of the governor's office of this state states the following about its territoriality: Historically in Venezuela, the central power (government and other Venezuelan state agencies) has been directly in charge of the treatment of the case of Guayana Esequiba, leaving the local governors' and mayors' offices with very little participation and power of action. A special and differentiated treatment is given to the jurisdictions of these national states, which do not usually include in their maps their territorial portion within the Guayana Esequiba, although in the national maps of the country the inclusion of the area under claim is mandatory. This has led some people to erroneously think that the Guayana Esequiba is a new Venezuelan state or federal territory. In 1999, when the new Venezuelan Magna Carta was enacted, Article 10 of the Constitution of the Venezuela established the following as Venezuelan territory: In August 2015, some deputies of the Venezuelan National Assembly proposed the creation of state number 25 (Estado Esequibo) uniting the territory of Guayana Esequiba (159,500 square kilometers) and the Sifontes Municipality (24,393 square kilometers), with capital in Tumeremo, the latter territory currently under the jurisdiction of the state of Bolivar. The proposal was officially introduced before the secretariat of the National Assembly, but was not approved. ==See also==