Schools’ curriculum to include Guyana-Venezuela controversy

Mar 03, 2017 News

The government has agreed to include relevant information on the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy into the public schools’ curriculum.

The dark shaded area is what Venezuela is claiming.

Yesterday, at a post-Cabinet press briefing, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, said the decision was made at the Ministerial Conference which was held on Tuesday at State House.
“It was agreed that the information relevant to this issue will be disseminated so that the nation can be sensitised about the controversy, especially with regards to Guyana’s position,” Minister Harmon said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, and a team from his ministry had made a presentation on the 50-year standing controversy at the ministerial conference.
Last month, the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, announced the appointment of a Norwegian diplomat, Dag Halvor Nylander, as his Personal Representative in the Good Offices Process on the border controversy.
The UN has utilised the Good Officer Process since 1990 to resolve the matter. The UN Secretary General has decided to give the process one more year with strengthened mediation. If the matter is not resolved by the end of the year, the UN Secretary General will choose the International Court of Justice as the next means of settlement.
Already, Government this week has made it clear that it will turn immediately to the International Court if no solutions are found by the mediator.
Guyana and Venezuela have referred to the UN to resolve the controversy through the signing of the Geneva Agreement of 17 February, 1966. This decision was reached after Venezuela contended that the Arbitral Award of 1899, about the frontier between Venezuela and what is now Guyana, is null and void.
Venezuela’s claim to two-thirds of Guyana has escalated over the years, with various shows of aggression and harassment.
Guyana is at major odds with neighbouring Venezuela after the latter aggressively stated that Essequibo, the biggest county in Guyana, belongs to them. The claim has been an old one that Guyana insisted was settled more than a century ago.
The Coalition Government, on entering office in May 2015, was immediately faced with a hostile Venezuela after it was announced that a significant deposit of oil was found in Guyana’s waters by US-owned ExxonMobil.
Venezuela immediately drew up maps, including all of Essequibo, as belonging to them.
Guyana has complained to a number of countries, to CARICOM and other organizations, and eventually President David Granger raised the matter on the floor of the United Nations General Assembly in late 2015.
Guyana insisted that it no longer had interest in the Good Offices Process. Rather, it wants a juridical settlement in the International Courts.
However, the new UN chief has asked for one more shot at the Good Offices Process before the matter is taken to court.

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