Essequibo

For background on the tensions between Venezuela and Guyana, see Essequibo.

In a nutshell, over a century ago, in 1899, Venezuela requested the United States arbitrate a dispute between Venezuela and England. Both countries agreed to abide by the outcome. As it turned out, volumes of documentation were available and the dispute was settled.

However, over half a century later, in 1962, under the administration of her celebrated first democratically elected president, Venezuela repudiated the agreement and began announcing her 19th Century claim in official maps and documents.

But it was under Chavismo that the dispute’s temperature shot up.

In February of this year, six Guyanese soldiers were fired upon from the Venezuelan side of the Cuyuní River, the river which for about 60 miles marks the current, internationally recognized border. Guyana filed formal protests which were promptly ignored.

This past Thursday, May 17, Guyanese soldiers were fired upon at least three times from the Venezuelan side by armed men dressed in civilian clothes. This has caused Guyana to “intensify” its military presence along the Cuyuní.

More ominously is the backdrop to all this: the Maduro regime has announced legislative “elections” for the area claimed by Venezuela. Those elections are scheduled to take place next Sunday, May 25. Guyana has forcefully denounced this brazen provocation, although how elections can take place in a foreign country on behalf of another country is a mystery to most. Nevertheless, we have learned not to underestimate the uses of power when it comes to Socialism.

After Thursday’s incident, Maduro’s vice-president, Delcy Rodriguez, who is also the “Minister of Hydrocarbons”, further escalated the provocations by reaffirming the “transcendental” regional elections wherein a governor and legislators for the region will be named and went on to further rhapsodize on this “political opportunity … for the defense … of an energetic political sovereignty over the resources” of Venezuela.

The area in question is about 62,000 square miles, close to twice the size of the Orinoco Mining Arc and well over half the size of Guyana.

It would mean the expansion and strengthening of criminal enterprises such as the Aragua Train (Tren de Aragua) and others and their partnership with the Socialist regime in Venezuela.

And it would mean even more pollution in these and other South American rivers. In fact, there is already terrible pollution in along the banks of the Cuyuní; but no one is very sure if this is due to illegal mining by Venezuelans or Guyanese or both. Guyanese officials have sounded the alarm for years that not energetically intercepting such operations, not only endangers waters, fish, and other sustenance, but also their territorial integrity.

I believe those officials have been right all along and are now being proved so.

To say tensions are at explosive levels is to put it mildly.

The critical and urgent nature of the major trouble spots in Eastern Europe and Western Asia require our attention and understandably so, given our close to century-long involvements. A righteous nation extricates itself from such with diplomacy and honor and I hope we do so.

However, we must at the least recognize that South America is in our own neighborhood and our commonality with such is far stronger than with the other side of the oceans. We ought to exercise powerful diplomacy to at the least seek to reduce the stresses that have been allowed to surge in the recent generation or two.

I pray we do this well for what happens in our own neighborhood will impact us in the short and in the long run. Alas, it is already affecting us greatly.

View of the Cuyuní River in Guyana

Guyanese patrol boat on the Cuyuní. These patrols have intensified; however, Venezuela’s military buildup is massive

Grave pollution follows illegal mining on the Cuyuní. Guyanese officials plead for intervention to stop this activity as it not only pollutes the rivers but also increases the threat to Guyanese border integrity.

Most official maps now reflect the “Zona en Reclamación”. This area “reclaimed” by the Venezuelan authorities comprises well over half of Guyana and is almost twice the size of the Orinoco Mining Arc.

Mostly under the radar to the rest of the world, but very much on the minds and attitudes of the people of Guyana and on the Venezuelan political class, the long simmering Venezuelan claim over a vast, oil rich area of the Guiana Highlands is dangerously close to erupting.

The highlands are “a heavily forested plateau and low-mountain region north of the Amazon and south of the Orinoco River. This extensive natural border, coupled with nonexistent infrastructure and insufficient political willingness to cooperate from both sides, has left Guyana — and its institutions, customs, culture, and people — as an enigma to the majority of Venezuelans [Caracas Chronicles, February 2, 2024]”. No doubt the same can be said about the Guyanese people’s perceptions about Venezuela.

Two months ago, on December 3, 2023, the Maduro regime claimed an overwhelming “victory” in a referendum where over 95% of the Venezuelan people in effect voted to take over the region and to reject any past or future international arbitration agreements. Of course, since the early naughts any results from “elections” or “referendums” in Venezuela are trusted only by those who believe in the tooth fairy.

Nevertheless, the Maduro regime is proceeding as if an invasion is the “will of the people” (Rousseau is very much with us, no?).

As noted by the Caracas Chronicles, “In the slums of Caracas and in towns closer to the border with Guyana, people remain focused on their many other problems and see the chauvinistic campaign as a bad thing.”

As well they should.

Since the referendum, the people and authorities of Guyana see the 20,000-plus Venezuelan immigrants as Trojan Horse infiltrators and are making life increasingly difficult for them. These are not “military age single men” such as are being seen in the United States southern border, but rather very poor people who escaped Venezuela in search for a way to feed their families. Guyana has historically never refused them entry.

Brief Background

British Guiana was a possession of England since long before Venezuela had come into existence in the 19th Century. It was only after the terrible revolutionary wars of South America that Venezuela, seeing that the British region contained gold deposits, claimed much of the British colony for herself.

The British were not impressed; however, they were willing to settle the controversy. As far back as 1840 they commissioned Sir Robert Schomburgk to ascertain the true boundary. He made a careful survey which the Venezuelans promptly dismissed.

Then, in 1895, the Venezuelans turned to the United States whose Anglophobe Secretary of State, Richard Olney, wrote a fierce letter to England’s Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, who replied several months later, correcting Olney’s interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine, which barred European powers from imposing their systems of governance onto the Americas but did not enter into border disputes. His reply also had the air of a college professor correcting a freshman student’s obvious grammatical errors.

Salisbury was undoubtedly correct; however, he was diplomatically unwise, not having read the American mood at the time, which was not very pro-British. Lord Salisbury turned his attention to England’s far flung empire, no doubt figuring the Americans would not bother further over that jungle-matted territory.

He figured wrong. President Grover Cleveland sought approval from Congress to appropriate funds for American arbitration of the border dispute, which request was approved unanimously, with a whoop and a holler, by both houses of Congress. The mood was of war with England, should it be necessary.

This was, of course, foolish on the part of the jingoists. England’s navy alone could wreak havoc on America’s coasts. Also, most American’s did not even know where British Guiana was on the map and could not care less, meaning enthusiasm was only temporary.

Across the ocean, similar sentiments prevailed. Most Englishmen agreed that a mosquito-infested piece of the South American jungle was not worth any war, no matter how many gold reserves it might have; after all, England had a corner of the world’s gold without counting the disputed highlands. Besides, the British were far more concerned with the rising power of Germany and also the obstreperous Boers in South Africa, which Germany was cheering on.

Europe’s discords continued to work to America’s advantage.

So the British agreed to arbitration and provided the Americans with massive amounts of documents and data which helped greatly in the push towards a reasonable and fair settlement. The Americans persuaded the Venezuelans to sign a treaty with England which called for the submission of the border dispute to international arbitration. This was a significant concession by England who knew that arbitrations tended to “split the difference”. The concern was that Venezuela, most unreasonably, claimed most of British Guiana, while England claimed far less of Venezuela.

The decision was issued about two years later and generally followed the Schomburgk line, with two important exceptions. “First, Venezuela secured a considerable area at the southern end; secondly, and much more significantly, she obtained control of the mouth of the Orinoco River [A Diplomatic History of the American People].”

It was Venezuela who had sought “Yankee intervention”. And when Cleveland died in 1908, Venezuela lowered her flags to half mast.

Current Situation

And now, Venezuela has moved “light tanks, missile-equipped patrol boats, and armored carriers to the two countries’ border in what is quickly turning into a new security challenge…. [Wall Street Journal, February 9, 2024].”

Historically, “revolutionary” regimes, which emphatically include Communist and Socialist inspired governments, seek confrontations and conflicts as they point fingers to “the other” as excuses for their own failures. History has ample evidence of this, from the French Revolution and it’s progeny throughout the earth, including the South American revolutionary wars of the 19th Century, the Russian Revolution and its progeny in the 20th, and the thirst for wars of the “free” governments of the 21st.

Essequibo refers to the name of a major river in Guyana. Venezuela aims to push their territorial claims to that river as they seek to take over most of her neighbor’s territory.

Pray for the peoples of Venezuela and Guyana.