Defining Borders: Sovereignty for Guyana

Smaller countries around the world are looking to take advantage of the oil crisis in the Middle East. The output and the infrastructure is not on the same level for some petro-states as those in the UAE, Qatar, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but are looking to expand into the market. One of the most interesting countries to look at is Guyana. This small country in South America has enormous potential for oil deposits in the ground and the current energy crisis has been a gift for the developing country. It is estimated that the increase in revenues “have been running at around $623m a week, up from about $370m a week before the war” and the “oilfields will generate some $33bn in revenue this year, three-quarters more than predicted before the war.”  Although Guyana has received this significant economic windfall, it is locked in a battle with its much larger neighbour Venezuela for sovereignty over its territory, which includes the natural resources that the rest of the world is interested in obtaining. The territory is called Essequibo and it has a very interesting history where we will begin during colonisation.

Map of Guyana and Venezuela showing the Essequibo disputed region. Borders, territorial claims, and oil fields are marked.

The disputed region of Essequibo is divided from the rest of Guyana by the Essequibo River, Essequibo borders Venezuela to the west, but also to the south and west of Brazil, and accessible via the Atlantic Ocean. During the height of the Exploration Age in the 15th century, explorer Christopher Columbus and Spain claimed a majority of the northern part of the continent of South America, which includes the present-day Guyana and Venezuela. After protracted fighting between the Spanish and the Dutch, the Dutch were successful in settling the Essequibo valley by setting up trading posts in the region. They established the first settlement in Guyana in 1616 and soon began to import enslaved people to cultivate sugarcane as well as develop the frontier over the next two centuries. Several other coloniser powers continued to fight over control over the region but by 1831 Britain united three territories that would form the colony of British Guiana. At this point, Essequibo became a territorial dispute with newly independent Venezuela, who asserted its own claim to sovereignty over Essequibo. In 1835 the British Royal Geographical Society commissioned Robert Hermann Schomburgk to explore British Guiana and at the end of his mission, Schomburgk believed that the borders of the colony should be fixed by survey. He was sent back to British Guiana to determine a boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela (the Schomburgk Line). Unsurprisingly, he found that the Essequibo region would be incorporated within British Guiana. Venezuela claimed that Schomburgk’s border encroached on Venezuelan land and disputed the boundary. 

Under the shield of the Monroe Doctrine’s prohibition of European intervention in the Western Hemisphere, Venezuela continued to challenge the territorial dispute. An international tribunal was established to determine the disputed territory’s boundary line. In 1899 the Paris Arbitral Award gave Venezuela control over parts of the area at the mouth of the Orinoco River and it awarded Britain the land west of the Essequibo River, which is about 90 percent of the contested region. The dispute was far from resolved when Venezuela challenged the ruling again in 1966. A UN conference convened in Geneva to address Venezuela’s and Guyana’s territorial dispute to determine a peaceful solution. The UN established a mixed commission to facilitate an agreement, but it failed to produce a resolution of the issue within the four years mandated by the agreement. A protocol agreed to by Venezuela and Guyana in 1970 effectively delayed any action on the dispute for 12 years, but the fight over the region significantly changed in 2015 when Exxon Mobil found oil reserves off the coast of the Essequibo region.

Tensions between Venezuela and Guyana resurfaced when 11 billion barrels of oil off the Atlantic coast was discovered. Challenges to Guyana’s sovereignty became a hot topic for the region and Venezuela's leader at the time, Nicolás Maduro, convened a national referendum on September 21, 2023, ostensibly to strengthen its rights over the Essequibo by creating a new Venezuelan state called "Guayana Esequiba." According to CSIS, the 2023 referendum was intended to answer five questions approved by Venezuela’s electoral body dealing with the legal issues of the dispute. “Most importantly, the last question asked if Venezuela should create its own state called Guayana Esequiba, grant citizenship and Venezuelan identity cards to the inhabitants, and incorporate the state into the map of Venezuelan territory”. Referendums like this one seem awfully familiar at this time when a regional power attempts to decide the fate of a disputed territory and concerned Western powers do not want another annexation like the one that is seen in Ukraine. 

The significant influx of economic growth from oil extraction has changed Guyana as well as its presence on the geopolitical stage. As a non-OPEC member and located far away from major conflicts, Guyana has the ability to establish itself as a developing nation that is willing to learn from mistakes that other resource-rich countries made. The “Resource Curse” is real and Guyana’s politicians are trying to mitigate the threat. Crucial infrastructure like a highway to Brazil and a bridge across the Demerara river are large projects that will help the country. Roads, schools and hospitals are also in development by the government but the cost of food and housing has increased by 75% since 2021 and the oil industry has redirected the best labour from the rest of the economy. Guyana also wants to become a global leader on climate change as an example of a country that understands coastal flooding and its “unique perspectives to share with the world on its most pressing challenges”. With so many issues on their plate, finalising the territorial dispute with Venezuela would be a significant milestone for Guyanese people.

This week the International Court of Justice held hearings from both countries regarding the Essequibo territory. From the Venezuelan representative, Samuel Reinaldo Moncada Acosta, told the world court that “Guyana presents itself as the true, legitimate heir to British and Dutch territories, but the reality is that it is the beneficiary of colonial dispossession, formalized through fraudulent arbitration. The Geneva Agreement seeks to correct this century-old injustice,” He also stated that Venezuela rejects the court’s jurisdiction that was “erroneously imposed” in a 2020 decision and said the 1966 agreement “establishes a framework” for a negotiated resolution. Guyana’s foreign minister, Hugh Hilton Todd, explained to the panel of international judges that the dispute “has been a blight on our existence as a sovereign state from the very beginning.” He also reminded the court that 70 percent of Guyana’s territory is at stake and this territory is an economic lifeline to help develop the country. The Guyanese have been pulled in many directions for centuries with much uncertainty and it is finally time to settle their borders once and for all.