Tensions between Venezuela and Guyana are rising more and more clearly. Last weekend, a Venezuelan military vessel intercepted and captured two Guyanese fishing boats claiming that the vessels were in its territorial waters. Which Guyana rejected, arguing that both ships operated in its jurisdiction.
The incident is the latest in a 100-year conflict over territory Exhaustive, which represents two thirds of Guyana, covers 159,000 square kilometers and that Venezuela places on all its maps as “Territory in recovery”. And no one thinks the problem with fishing boats was accidental.
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Things between the two nations have warmed up since December 18. On that day, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared itself competent to rule on the validity of an 1899 arbitration award in Paris, which established the border between the two countries, but which Venezuela considered “null”, according to an American lawyer. who was part of Venezuela’s defense in this process ordered that, after his death, a letter be made public stating that the Paris Prize had been arranged for the benefit of the British. Guyana was officially an English colony between 1814 and 1966, when it gained independence.
And while Guyana’s president, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, called the ICJ ruling a “great moment” and a “victory for the rule of law”, Venezuela called it “infamous” and reiterated its call for a settlement. Canal “amicably through direct negotiations with Guyana,” calling for the 1966 Geneva Agreement. A solution that never came.
“Venezuela has never given its consent for the Court to hear the territorial dispute over Guayana Esequiba, much less to involve it in a unilateral action brought by Guyana on an already outdated legal issue, such as the Arbitration Award. since 1899Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro wrote in a letter on January 7 in a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres requesting his mediation in reactivating talks with Guyana.
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Venezuela has never given its consent for the Court to hear about the territorial dispute over Guayana Esequiba
But the insistence on ignoring the Court’s jurisdiction in this case is, for experts such as Emilio Figueredo, who for 12 years was Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations for the implementation of the 1966 Geneva Agreement, a “stupidity” because by signing it, Venezuela accepted the possible application of Article 33 of the Charter of the United Nations, which establishes as a means of resolving disputes negotiation, investigation, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, recourse to regional organizations or agreements or other peaceful means.
The fact is that experts such as Sadio Garavini di Turno, who was Venezuela’s ambassador to Guyana, have already reached what is the best scenario for Guyana. “The other settlement mechanisms were much better (for Venezuela) than going to court,” says this specialist.
The Venezuelan regime insisted on the ICJ decision It is “invalid” due to “procedural defects and background variables”.
“We must remain in the Geneva agreement to seek a way out through direct dialogue and peaceful tools to resolve this conflict,” said MP Hermann Escarrá, who chairs the newly installed Special Defense Committee. From Guayana Esequiba known) and the Territorial Sovereignty of the Chavista Parliament.
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However, the experts consulted by EL TIEMPO insist that Venezuela must fight in the ICJ. And now he would have little time to prepare for the audience he was Scheduled for last Monday, it was postponed to February 26, after the Nicolás Maduro regime insisted on its postponement, although it failed to do so until April.
“Venezuela needs to defend itself with what it has (…) we need to prepare as best we can so that our arguments can be heard in court,” insisted Garavini, who believes a team of lawyers and other specialists who have worked on the theme.
In any case, Venezuela’s arguments in court, according to internationalist Figueredo, would be “essentially historical”; and the chances of winning are nil. “If you say it was a corrupt act, where is the evidence? (CIJ) will decide that the award is valid, I have no doubt “, Figueredo cried. However, Venezuela and, in his opinion, could at least “save face”.
Third parties involved
The new actors took part in the dispute in this new stage. The United States, which has remained neutral for many years, has joined the position of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) in supporting the ICJ in adopting and resolving the dispute.
“The problems between Guyana and Venezuela should be resolved peacefully, but we also believe that where (they) should be resolved is (in) the International Court of Justice,” the ambassador to the Foreign Office said in a recent interview with EL TIEMPO of the United States for Venezuela, James Story.
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In previous weeks, along with Guyana, the United States has conducted military exercises off the coast of Guyana, which Venezuela has seen as a “challenge” and a “threat.” The head of the US Southern Command, Craig Faller, visited the country within the same and signed an agreement with Chief of the Defense Staff, Godfrey Bess, although he said his country was not interested in setting up a military base there.
According to Garavini, the US interest in Guyana is not only due to the confrontation with the Venezuelan regime, but also to the importance that this country acquires. By 2020, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that its economy will grow at a rate of 86 percent per year, which was expected to become the fastest growing economy in the world.
The 160,000 square kilometers of Essequibo territory are rich in gold, oil, diamonds and coltan, among other natural resources. In fact, on May 20, 2015, Exxon Mobil – which has a $ 200 million concession to explore and extract crude oil in Guyana – announced that it had discovered a tank in a well located in a basin between Guyana and Suriname. , which, according to the United States Geological Survey, is the second largest area in the world with unexplored oil.
Venezuela has insisted that the bloc is in disputed waters and that Guyana cannot authorize economic exploration or exploitation there or in Essequibo, as these are disputed areas. “There are many interests at stake that will grow,” Garavini warned.
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Meanwhile, the Venezuelan regime looked to its traditional allies. Last week, his defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López, reported a meeting with the Russian ambassador to Venezuela, Sergei Melik-Bagdasarov, in which they discussed military cooperation projects between the two nations and Venezuela’s “historic right” to Dry.
All this is accumulating at the request of the Guyanese and demonstrates the inconsistency of Venezuela in this matter
However, Russia and, in the opinion of the experts consulted, would have a limited capacity to act in the Western Hemisphere if there was a confrontation, which it still throws away. “Guyana has the support, at the moment, of Cuba, China, Brazil and most of the non-aligned,” Figueredo said.
The errors of Chavism
How did you get to this point? “Chávez has no doubt forgotten the Essequibo issue. The reasons were the megalomania of believing oneself a world leader and especially hemispheric and his interest in the votes and support of the Caribbean “, in the Organization of American States and other courts, explains Garavini, who remembers two episodes of his administration. The first, in 2004, when, during a visit to Georgetown, he said that he would not oppose the Essequibo projects as long as they would benefit its inhabitants.
“At that time, Chávez broke the tradition of the entire era of the Civil Republic (…) one of the few mechanisms to press Guyana to negotiate was that we were not aware of transnational investments in Essequibo and, of course, in area projects. marine and submarine projects ”, Garavini emphasized.
The second came in February 2007, when Chávez said the reactivation of the Venezuelan claim in 1962 was due to John F. Kennedy’s United States pressuring then-Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt to seek a destabilization of the left government.by Cheddi Jagan in Guyana.
For Garavini, it is “the worst expression” which he gave on this subject, because, in his opinion and that of other experts, he took the legitimacy of the request.
Guyana currently has the support of Cuba, China, Brazil and most of the non-aligned
“All this is accumulating in the case of the Guyanese trial and shows Venezuela’s inconsistency in the matter,” Figueredo said.
With Maduro in power, another stage of the conflict began. In 2013, Guyana began granting oil concessions to transnational companies in the marine and underwater areas it considers to be its own, and began boat trips to conduct seismic investigations.
One of them, Teknik Perdana, was detained by Venezuelan authorities that year, which sounded the alarm in the government of Guyana.
At the end of 2013, the country’s foreign minister, Carolyn Rodríguez-Birkett, said that more than 20 years had passed through a good office process, which began in 1989, there are no signs of progress and that other options needed to be reviewed, indicating arbitration and the ICJ as alternatives.
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In fact, the Court had always been Guyana’s preferred option. “Since 1976, the preferred mechanism for Guyana has been to go to the ICJ to resolve the issue, for obvious reasons: because Guyana’s position on this is the validity or not of the 1899 award. A strictly legal issue,” Garavini recalled. Will Maduro accept a final decision from the ICJ? Unlikely.
ANDREINA ITRIAGO
Correspondent THE TIME
Caracas