Guayana Esequiba is the territory of Guyana claimed by Venezuela. The name Guayana Esequiba is a term only used by Venezuela. It consists of six administrative regions of Guyana: Barima-Waini, Cuyuni-Mazaruni, Pomeroon-Supenaam, Potaro-Siparuni, Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo and Essequibo Islands-West Demerara. Area 159.500 km²
Spanish authorities in a report dated 10 July 1788 put forward the first claim:
It has been stated that the south coast of the Orinoco from the point of Barima, 20 leagues more or less inland, up to the creek of Curucima, is low lying and swampy land and, consequently, reckoning all this tract as useless, very few patches of fertile land being found therein, and hardly any savannahs and pastures, it is disregarded; so taking as chief base the said creek of Curucima, or the point of the chain and ridge in the great arm of the Imataka, an imaginary line will be drawn running to the south-south-east following the slopes of the ridge of the same name which is crossed by the Rivers Aguire, Arature and Amacuro, and others, in the distance of 20 leagues, direct to the Cuyuni; from there it will run on to the Masaruni and Essequibo, parallel to the sources of the Berbis and Surinama; this is the directing line of the course which the new Settlements and foundations proposed must follow.
Since the creation of the Captaincy General of Venezuela, it was known that the Essequibo river was the natural border between Spain and the Dutch Republic colonies of Demerara, Berbice and Essequibo. In 1814, Great Britain and the Dutch Republic sign the Treaty of London (see Anglo-Dutch Treaty), whereby those colonies were transferred to Great Britain. Nevertheless, all those dutch colonies had the Essequibo river as its natural west border with the Spanish General Captaincy of Venezuela. In 1831 Great Britain merged Berbice, Demerara and Esequibo into one country: British Guiana, with the Essequibo river as its west border, despite many English settlers had begun to live west of the Essequibo river.
By 1819, José Rafael Revenga, with instructions of Simón BolÃvar, reminded Great Britain government about the legal border between Venezuela and the British colonies, despite the existence of English settlers in the Venezuelan territory: "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 -concludes the Venezuelan diplomat- that these settlers be put under the jurisdiction and obedience to our laws, or be withdrawn to their former possessions". However, the British government continued to promote colonization of territory west of the Essequibo River.
In 1840 the British commissioned a survey of the border of Guyana's borders. Employing Robert Schomburgk, a German surveyor, geographer and naturalist, who personally investigated practically the whole of the country (west of the Essequibo). With his reports Schomburgk submitted maps of his surveys, on which he indicated the line which he would propose to the British Government for adoption. It was on this principle that he drew the boundary line which since became famous as the Schomburgk Line, which included, therefore, much less territory than that claimed by Great Britain.[1] In 1840 Venezuela claimed all of Guyana west of the Essequibo River — 62% of Guyana's territory. Britain and Venezuela argued over the boundary between what was then British Guiana and Venezuela for much of the 19th century. On 21 February 1881, in a note to Lord Grenville, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain at that time, Venezuela proposed a frontier line starting from a point one mile to the north of the Moruka River, drawn from there westward to the 60th meridian and running south along that meridian. This would have granted the Barima District to Venezuela. The Government of Venezuela, in the case it presented to the Arbitral Tribunal, re-established its claim as regards the district immediately west of the Essequibo, and claimed that the boundary should run from the mouth of the Moruka River southwards to the Cuyuni, near its junction with Mazaruni, and then along the east bank of the Essequibo to the Brazilian frontier.
Venezuela, pressurized by both British and US government, accepted the decision of a Tribunal of Arbitration in 1899, despite its widespread objections about the composition of the staff (no Venezuelan jurist was allowed to represent the Venezuelan interest) and the ruling itself, which was severely flawed by nullity, as was openly made clear when, in 1949, the US jurist Otto Shoenrich gave the Venezuelan government the Memorandum of Severo Mallet-Prevost (Official Secretary of the U.S./Venezuela delegation in the Tribunal of Arbitration) in which he stated the shady compromises between US and Britain against Venezuelan interests. Mallet-Prevost alleged that the Russian and British judges on the tribunal had acted improperly and granted the lion's share of the dispute territory to Britain due to a political deal between Russia and the United Kingdom. As a result, Venezuela has revived its claim to the disputed territory.[2] [3]
Venezuela formally raised the issue again in 1962, four years before Guyana won independence from Britain, alleging several improprieties and vices in the ruling (which nullify it according to International Law), such as Ultra Petita (the referees decreed freedom of navigation in the Amacuro and Barima rivers, as well as the border between the British colony and Brazil, issues that never were asked to settle) and the shady compromises noted above. At a meeting in Geneva in 1966, the two countries agreed to receive recommendations from a representative of the UN Secretary General on ways to settle the dispute peacefully, by means of the Geneva Treaty (1966). Diplomatic contacts between the two countries and the Secretary General's representative continue.
The Venezuelan claim basis about the nullity of the 1899 ruling has been acknowledged by several foreign scholars and jurists, such as Swedish J. Gillis Wetter, in his prizewinning work "The International Arbitral Process" (1979); as well as Uruguayan Héctor Gross Espiell and Eduardo Jiménez de Aréchaga.
In its note of recognition of the independence of Guyana on 26 May 1966, Venezuela stated:
Venezuela recognises as territory of the new State the one which is located on the east of the right bank of the Essequibo River, and reiterates before the new State, and before the international community, that it expressly reserves its rights of territorial sovereignty over all the zone located on the west bank of the above-mentioned river. Therefore, the Guyana-Essequibo territory over which Venezuela expressly reserves its sovereign rights, limits on the east by the new State of Guyana, through the middle line of the Essequibo River, beginning from its source and on to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean.
Venezuelan maps produced since 1970 show the entire area from the eastern bank of the Essequibo, including the islands in the river, as Venezuelan territory. On some maps, the western Essequibo region is called the "Zone in Reclamation".[4]
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Guayana Esequiba is the name that Venezuela calls a region that it claims in the west of Guyana. Its area is 159,500 square kilometers. Guyana calls this area the six administrative regions of Barima-Waini, Cuyuni-Mazaruni, Pomeroon-Supenaam, Potaro-Siparuni, Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo and Essequibo Islands-West Demerara.
Spain made its first claim on this area in a report dated 10 July 1788:
It has been stated that the south coast of the Orinoco from the point of Barima, 20 leagues more or less inland, up to the creek of Curucima, is low lying and swampy land and, so, reckoning all this tract as useless, very few patches of fertile land being found therein, and hardly any savannahs and pastures, it is disregarded; so taking as chief base the said creek of Curucima, or the point of the chain and ridge in the great arm of the Imataka, an imaginary line will be drawn running to the south-south-east following the slopes of the ridge of the same name which is crossed by the Rivers Aguire, Arature and Amacuro, and others, in the distance of 20 leagues, direct to the Cuyuni; from there it will run on to the Masaruni and Essequibo, parallel to the sources of the Berbis and Surinama; this is the directing line of the course which the new Settlements and foundations proposed must follow.
In 1840, Venezuela claimed all of Guyana west of the Essequibo River — 62% of what was then British Guiana. Britain and Venezuela argued over the boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela for much of the 19th century. On 21 February 1881, in a note to Lord Grenville, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain at that time, Venezuela suggested a border line starting from a point one mile to the north of the Moruka River, drawn from there westward to the 60th meridian, and running south along that meridian. This would have given the Barima District to Venezuela. The Government of Venezuela, in the case it made to the Arbitration Tribunal, changed its claim on the district just west of the Essequibo, and claimed that the boundary should run from the mouth of the Moruka River southwards to the Cuyuni River, near where it meets the Mazaruni River, and then along the east bank of the Essequibo to the Brazilian border. Britain and Venezuela accepted the decision of the Tribunal in 1899.
Venezuela raised the issue again in 1962, four years before Guyana won independence from Britain. At a meeting in Geneva in 1966, the two countries agreed to hear ideas from a representative of the UN Secretary General on ways to settle the dispute peacefully. There are still diplomatic contacts between the two countries and the Secretary General's representative.
On recognizing the independence of Guyana on 26 May 1966, Venezuela said:
Venezuela recognises as territory of the new State the one which is located on the east of the right bank of the Essequibo River, and reiterates before the new State, and before the international community, that it expressly reserves its rights of territorial sovereignty over all the zone located on the west bank of the above-mentioned river. Therefore, the Guyana-Essequibo territory over which Venezuela expressly reserves its sovereign rights, limits on the east by the new State of Guyana, through the middle line of the Essequibo River, beginning from its source and on to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean.
Venezuelan maps drawn since 1970 show all the area from the eastern bank of the Essequibo, including the islands in the river, as Venezuelan territory. On some maps, the western Essequibo region is called the "Zone of Reclamation" [1].
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