Be wary of Venezuela’s misleading call for return to Geneva Agreement – Director of Frontiers

Dec 01, 2023 News

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Borderline Facts Pt 4

By Kiana Wilburg

Kaieteur News – On December 3, Venezuela will likely hold a Referendum seeking the support of its people to engage in unilateral actions that would annex Guyana’s Essequibo Region. In the interim, its leaders continue to make misleading calls for the Guyana Government to return to the Geneva Agreement.

During an informative session on Kaieteur Radio regarding the Guyana/Venezuela Controversy, Director of the Frontiers Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation, Donnette Streete urged Guyanese to be wary of Venezuela’s skewed narrative.

The Director explained that Guyana’s boundaries which included the Essequibo Region were settled via an Arbitral Award in 1899. For 63 years, Venezuela celebrated that award for the very instrument allowed it to gain control over the mouth of the Orinoco as well as the Orinoco Basin.

However, when Guyana had approached the United Nations (UN) in 1961 regarding its application for independence, the UN received an objection from Venezuela. The UN was informed that Venezuela was in possession of a troubling letter from Severo Mallet-Prevost, a junior American lawyer who was on Venezuela’s side during the 1899 arbitration. That lawyer had written a letter alleging corruption at the tribunal.

Interestingly, that letter was written in 1944. This was after he was awarded the Order of the Liberator by the Venezuelan government. Strangely, he instructed in his will that his damning letter of alleged corruption should only be read and made public knowledge after his death which was in 1948. It was on the grounds of this letter that Venezuelan authorities said the 1899 award was null and void.

Between 1962 and 1966, the period when Guyana was seeking independence, Ms. Streete explained that the United Kingdom wanted to give Venezuela an opportunity to prove its claim of nullity. She noted that during that period, the British Government opened its archives in London for the Venezuelan authorities at the time to go through the documents related to the 1899 award. This was done in an effort to confirm the allegations of corruption as alleged by Mallet-Prevost.

In 1966, when it was realized that the controversy started by Venezuela was going to affect Guyana’s transition to independence, the Director of Frontiers said the British Government agreed to sign what was called—The Geneva Agreement. She said this 1966 agreement essentially provided a number of mechanisms to allow Venezuela to prove its claim of nullity of the 1899 award. “That instrument is still valid today and still applicable in the search for a resolution,” the Director said.

She further noted that the Geneva Agreement established a Mixed Commission which had a life of four years. Its sole aim was to find a satisfactory solution for a practical settlement of the controversy. During that four-year period, Venezuela failed to prove its claim. “When the Mixed Commission came to an end in 1970, the parties also agreed to a 12-year moratorium (called the Protocol of Port of Spain) so that they could work on developing relations between the two and so that they could search for a resolution of the controversy in a friendlier atmosphere,” she said.

In 1982, the Director said Venezuela unilaterally abandoned the “Protocol of Port of Spain” which was signed to allow for the moratorium.

Furthermore, the Director noted that the parties were unable to choose a means of settlement as well as agree on an international organization that would choose a means of settlement. “So the Geneva Agreement said that if they were not able to choose or arrive at a means of settlement amongst themselves or on an international organ then that choice would go to the Secretary General of the United Nations.”

By 1989, the matter then fell into the jurisdiction of the Secretary General which commenced a Good Offices Process and then eventually enhanced mediation.

With years of dialogue failing to work, the Secretary General, as he was empowered to do, referred the Guyana/Venezuela Controversy to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

By calling for a reversal of all the aspects of the Geneva Agreement that have been activated, Ms. Streete, as well as the Guyana Government are of the view that Venezuela is running because its case would not wither under any light of legal scrutiny.

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• Director of Frontiers, Donnette Streete, Geneva Agreement, Guyana, Venezuela

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