HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN VENEZUELA AND GUYANA

• On 14 February 1962, Venezuela informed the Secretary-General of the United Nations that it considered there to be a dispute between itself and the United Kingdom “concerning the demarcation of the frontier between Venezuela and British Guiana”, that the 1899 Award had been “the result of a political transaction carried out behind Venezuela’s back and sacrificing its legitimate rights”, and that it, therefore, could not recognize the Award.
• At the time the dispute arose, Guyana was still a British colony, known as British Guiana. It gained independence from the United Kingdom on 26 May 1966. The dispute between Guyana and Venezuela dates back to a series of events that took place during the second half of the nineteenth century.
• In the nineteenth century, the United Kingdom and Venezuela both claimed the territory comprising the area between the mouth of the Essequibo River in the east and the Orinoco River in the west.
• In the 1890s, the United States of America encouraged both parties to submit their territorial claims to binding arbitration. The exchanges between the United Kingdom and Venezuela eventually led to the signing in Washington of a treaty of arbitration entitled the “Treaty between Great Britain and the United States of Venezuela Respecting the Settlement of the Boundary between the Colony of British Guiana and the United States of Venezuela” on 2 February 1897.
• The arbitral tribunal established under this Treaty rendered its Award on 3 October 1899. This decision granted the entire mouth of the Orinoco River and the land on either side to Venezuela; it granted to the United Kingdom the land to the east extending to the Essequibo River.
• The following year, a joint Anglo-Venezuelan commission was charged with demarcating the boundary established by the 1899 Award. The commission carried out that task between November 1900 and June 1904.
• On 10 January 1905, after the boundary had been demarcated, the British and Venezuelan commissioners produced an official boundary map and signed an agreement accepting, inter alia, that the co-ordinates of the points listed were correct.
• The Government of the United Kingdom, for its part, asserted that “the Western boundary of British Guiana with Venezuela had been finally settled by the award which the arbitral tribunal announced on 3 October 1899”, and that it could not “agree that there could be any dispute over the question settled by the award”. The United Kingdom nonetheless stated that it was open to discussions through diplomatic channels.
• On 16 November 1962, with the authorization of the representatives of the United Kingdom and Venezuela, the Chairman of the Fourth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly declared that the Governments of the two States (the Government of the United Kingdom acting with the full concurrence of the Government of British Guiana) would examine the “documentary material” relating to the 1899 Award.
• This Examination took place from 1963 to 1965. It was completed on 3 August 1965 with the exchange of the experts’ reports. While Venezuela’s experts continued to consider the Award to be null and void, the experts of the United Kingdom were of the view that there was no evidence to support that position. On meeting in London in December 1965 to discuss a settlement of the dispute, each party maintained its position on the matter.
• Following the failure of the talks in London, the three delegations met again in Geneva in February 1966 and that, on 17 February 1966, they signed the Geneva Agreement, the English and Spanish texts of which are authoritative.
• On 26 May 1966, Guyana, having attained independence, became a party to the Geneva Agreement, alongside the Governments of the United Kingdom and Venezuela.
• Any person in need of legal advice must consult a licensed Attorney in the State of Florida. This article is not intended to provide any legal advice nor is sufficient to assess a particular case.

Manuel Vallina Grisanti, Esq.

Venezuelan-American licensed Attorney email: [email protected]