Topic: 2024-The Situation in Guyana
Country: Ecuador
Delegate Name: Talia McCollum
The situation in Guyana is a conflict between Venezuela and Guyana over land disputes. The Essequibo region covers more than ⅔ of Guyana and contains the world’s largest crude oil reserves. Venezuela’s historical claim on the land has conjured a rising conflict between the countries. Venezuela recognized the potential of the Essequibo region economically and politically and argued that the land rightfully belonged to them.
Dating back to the Spanish/Dutch colonial era, the Essequibo Region was originally a part of Venezuela. Though the Essequibo region was claimed by the Dutch it inhabited a large number of indigenous people, who were strongly influenced by European powers. Soon Venezuela declared independence from the Dutch in 1811, and they claimed that they owned the former territories of old Spanish colonies, which included Essequibo. However, Venezuela was independent which didn’t stop other European powers from invading. The British had taken over Dutch settlements near the area permanently occupying Essequibo. The British then established the British Guiana in 1831. A new colony of Spain ( Captaincy General of Venezuela) possessed the west border of the Essequibo River, which soon took over the Dutch West Indies settlements.
The two new colonies started to argue over territory, and for a solution, they came up with the Schomburgk Line. This line gave the British the upper hand by giving them the mouth of the Orinoco River. This agreement led to both leaving the Essequibo region un-colonised, until many years later when the British discovered gold. The Cuyuni Basin was well over Venezuelan territory beyond the Schomburgk line. In protest, Venezuela reclaimed its possession of the Essequibo River. After years of conflict, the Paris Tribunal in 1899, gave 90% of the land to Britain. It established a border between Venezuela and British Guiana, though Venezuela had a lot of the eastern territory, the gold mines, and the rest of the land given to Britain.
Guyana declared independence in 1966, which led Venezuela to invade surrounding islands to assert dominance over Guyana. To try and set peace, the presidents, Rafael Caldera and Forbes Burnham signed a 12-year moratorium for Venezuela’s huge complaint of the region of Essequibo, called the Port of Spain Protocol. This set peace for 12 years, and even after the protocol expired, as the president of Venezuela at the time thought it wasn’t worth it.
Years later, Guyana discovered an oil exploration vessel off Essequibio’s coast in 2015. This made Venezuela more persistent in its claims on the region. In December 2023, Venezuela held a referendum for its people to determine whether the region is a state of Venezuela as well as whether its population become citizens of Venezuela, and other questions. The Venezuelan government announced that the results were very supportive of this action. To take further steps after this referendum, Venezuela proceeded to publish new maps that showed the Essequibo region was a part of Venezuela and announced ways to develop the region.
After the actions of Venezuela took place many countries supported Guyana, such as the United States, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. Ecuador believes that in Latin America there should be peace over all territories. Like Ecuador, many other nations in South America want to highlight the significance of diplomacy and respecting international laws. After President Lenin Moreno replaced Rafael Correa Ecuador broke diplomatic relations with Venezuela as Ecuador did not recognize Moreno as a leader, who was a close ally of Correa. Therefore Ecuador would lean more towards support for Guyana rather than Venezuela. To propose peace between the two conflicting countries Ecuador proposes direct conversations between Guyana and Venezuela under supervision to mutually agree on a resolution, supporting the ICJ process to clarify each country’s standings on the situation based on historical treaties, and working through the structure like OAS (Organization of American States) to advocate for a unified stance on certain regions like Essequibo to find peace and unity.
This paper supports the use of diplomacy and international law to conclude the years’ of conflict between Guyana and Venezuela. To be more specific, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) provides an authorized platform to refine regional claims and make a true agreement, ensuring each country is content with the decision made.
