NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET!

Oct 11, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

There are many well-intentioned Guyanese who are quick to burst into singing Dave Martin’s “Not a blade of grass” whenever the issue of Venezuela’s claim to two- thirds of Guyana’s territory is raised.

They words of that song should be adapted to read, “Not a blade of grass more” because for almost fifty years, Venezuela has been in occupation of half of Ankoko Island which according to the Arbitral Award of 1899 belongs to Guyana. The mighty Guyana Defence Force which recently conducted military exercises along the Coast has never attempted to reclaim that territory which has been seized from Guyana. Guyana also has not regularly asked the international community to call on Venezuela to stop its almost fifty-year occupation of a small part of Guyana’s territory.

Guyana’s position in terms of Venezuela’s claim has since Independence been that the territorial issue was settled. Yet despite this position Guyana signed the 1966 Geneva Agreement with Venezuela as a means to resolving the controversy with Venezuela. Guyana has never accepted that this Agreement reopened the border dispute but Venezuela is of this mind and this is why the Mixed Commission established under that Agreement has gone nowhere.

Venezuela is of the view that the claim has been reopened and Guyana is of the view that the borders are and remain fully settled. The two positions are irreconcilable.

Guyana has never prior to this year called for a legal solution to the problem with Venezuela. Never! It has never pursued that option; it has never suggested that option until now. There was good reason why it never did.

Guyana’s position has always been that there is nothing to settle, that its borders were settled by the Arbitration Award and that settlement was final and indefinite settlement. Burnham never opted for a juridical settlement. In fact, Burnham was secretly negotiating a passage to the Atlantic with the Venezuelans. No one has yet considered the implications of and why Guyana has suddenly opted to go for a juridical settlement. There is some amount of blind loyalty being shown by Guyanese on this question.

A juridical settlement sound nice. Let us go and have a legal settlement to this dispute, once and for all. The fact is however that there was good reason why Burnham and Hoyte never went this route. They never went this route because there was no chance of its ever seeing the light of day.

It is no- go proposal. The Venezuelans will never accept such a suggestion and their acceptance is necessary.

The Venezuelans are contending that there is a defect in the 1899 ruling. That was not always there position. They are contending that this defect was that the arbitration award was as a result of a compromise made between the adjudicators. They are contending that instead of basing their judgment on law the arbitrators cut a deal with one of the arbitrator having a heavy hand in this matter. As result of this deal, they are saying that they were disinherited of territory that belongs to them.

The position that the 1899 award is invalid because the arbitrators did not rule on the basis of law is one subject to dispute. Almost all arbitral awards are based on compromises. But this is Venezuela’s position and this is the position that allows it to claim that the 1899 Award is defective.

Having taken that position, Venezuela has reasserted its traditional claim on historical grounds. Venezuela is basing its claim on history, going right back to the Treaty of Tordesillas.

Guyana’s defense is therefore a legal defense based on the indefinite validity of the 1899 Arbitral Tribunal Award. Venezuela’s claim on the other hand is based on history. The twain shall never meet.

Venezuela will never agree to a juridical settlement and Guyana will not reopen the border issue based on history. This matter will remain unresolved for the next two hundred years.

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