The maritime question

Nov 16, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – A US Embassy Diplomatic Cable, dated 16^th June 2006 reported that then President Bharrat Jagdeo told embassy officials that he was told by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that the Venezuela’s claim to Guyana’s territory was spurious and that “the dispute was an imperialist issue, blaming pressure from the U.S. and UK in the run-up to Guyana’s independence for Venezuela’s pursuit of the claim.”

This cable has since been released by Wikileaks. Jagdeo owes to the people of Guyana and the record of history to confirm whether Hugo Chavez did concede to him that the Venezuelan claim was spurious and if this admission disarmed Guyana in its subsequently dealings with Venezuela. Hugo Chavez certainly did not operate as if the claim was spurious. Chavez opposed plans by Beal Aerospace to set up a satellite rocket launch site in Guyana in Region 1. Chavez had opposed to that project. In a radio address the Venezuelan President had said: “We cannot accept it because that territory is in reclamation.”

Even though a senior official of Beal had said they have preferred that the project was located in an undisputed area, the project was eventually shelved because of commercial considerations. One year earlier, the then Venezuelan Foreign Minister had expressed similar sentiments. José Vicente Rangel was said to have written to the Foreign Ministry of Guyana rejecting “unfriendly act, which hampers a practical and satisfactory solution to the territorial dispute between our two countries.”

Just three days ago, the Guyana Chronicle reminded the nation that Chavez had said, “It concerns and displeases the Venezuelan People and Government, that the initiatives promoting foreign direct investment are directed mainly to the zone under claim, on which the Venezuelan State claims and will claim its possession, until achieving the practical and satisfactory solution foreseen in the Geneva Agreement.” These comments and actions by the father of 21^st Century socialism do not concur with what Jagdeo reportedly told US embassy officials in 2006. Chavez certainly was not operating as if his country’s claim to Guyana’s territory was spurious and the product of imperialist machinations.

In 2000, the Venezuelan government had threatened to grant oil exploration licenses in the offshore area which is now considered part of Guyana’s territory but which is not delimited. There are many Guyanese who are of the mistaken view that a favourable ICJ ruling will bring an end to the controversy over the granting of oil concessions by Guyana in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). But these persons need to be reminded that while Guyana’s land boundaries have been demarcated, the same has not been done for Guyana’s maritime boundaries with Venezuela and a separate round of legal proceedings will have to be done under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Following an incident between Venezuelan naval forces and an exploration vessel operating in Guyana’s waters, the then Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, on the 7^th November 2013, related to the country’s National Assembly that while the land border, which includes Essequibo, had been settled in 1899, the maritime boundary had not yet been resolved.

In its decision of 18^th December 2020, the International Court of Justice ruled that it has jurisdiction to entertain the Application filed by the Co-operative Republic of Guyana on 29 March 2018 in so far as it concerns the validity of the Arbitral Award of 3 October 1899 and the related question of the definitive settlement of the land boundary dispute between the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and Venezuela. However, it also found that it did not have jurisdiction to entertain the claims of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana arising from events that occurred after the signature of the Geneva Agreement.

Guyana had asked the court to order that Venezuela refrain from threatening or using force against any person and/or company licensed by Guyana to engage in economic or commercial activity in Guyanese territory as determined by the 1899 Award and 1905 Agreement, or in any maritime areas appurtenant to such territory over which Guyana has sovereignty or exercises sovereign rights, and shall not interfere with any Guyanese or Guyanese-authorized activities in those areas.

As per the issue of a sea lane to the Atlantic, this was an issue that was broached since the time of Forbes Burnham. It was not a Jagdeo invention. The Venezuelans contend that during Burnham’s presidency, and during informal contacts, a concrete proposal in the maritime area was made by Guyana. In its memorandum to the ICJ Venezuela noted that during the Good Officers process, on the 29^th October 1990 (under the Desmond Hoyte presidency), a member of the Guyana’s side was reported to have said that the greatest contribution Guyana could make to overcome the dispute was in the maritime area and that this could involve “a corridor towards the Atlantic, possibly accompanied by a small stretch of coastline.” There are a great many things which were discussed during that Good Officers Process that would cause heads to turn now in Guyana. But that is better left for another day.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• Both President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, Peeping Tom, President, US Embassy Diplomatic Cable, Venezuela’s

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