Topic 14: Land claim

Guyana
 History
1777: Venezuelan borders were stablished. Being the east border the Esequibo River

1811: Venezuela is declared an independent country with its original borders

1819: La Gran Colombia. The Esequibo River stays as the east border

1830: After La Gran Colombia is dissolved.

They found gold in the Yuruiri River and The English Crown, who were
already ruling the British Guyana, says hello.
 History
1840: British explorer Robert Schomburgk is hired to stablish British Guyana
borders, and it is when the Schomburgk appears for the first time.

1841: Venezuelan President, Antonio Paez, made the claim over Schomburgk’s
line

Which was troublesome for two reasons.

• The EU would not have politic relationships with “Naturales” from America of
any kind

• Our army (just lancers) did not stand a chance against theirs (the most
powerful at the time).
 History
1895: Venezuela asks The USA government for help under the Monroe Doctrine.

The Monroe Doctrine was a United States foreign policy position that opposed
European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere.

1897: The USA accepts representing Venezuela in the case.

1899: The UK won the trial with the sentence of the Laudo Arbitral de Paris.

1940-60: Somewhere around this time they found proofs that the Russian jurist
was bought by the UK to commit fraud in the trial.

So the dispute re-starts. But at the time, Venezuela was passing through one of
its many internal political instabilities and nobody was doing something about
this matter.
 History
1966: After the ONU was created and the UK stablish direct
relationships with “Naturales” from Venezuela, both countries start the
discussion again. They made “El acuerdo de Ginebra” which was
popularly known as the agreement to reach an agreement.

But in the same year The UK freed Guyana from its power. Leaving
them to solve its conflicts with Venezuela by their own.
There is of course a change of narrative since now Venezuela was the
big intrusive country (in perspective) against a small independent one.

1970: They firm the “Puerto España” agreetment to freezed the

conversation for 12 years meanwhile both countries work on their
internal political stability. During that time, both battles and
collaborations happened between the two countries changing their
relationship over time according to their interests at the moment.

1999: Chavez came to power and his interest in Guyana as an ally

overweighed the one in our own land. So the claim gets neglected
which allowed the people from the area develop as part of Guyana.
 Recent development

2015: They found gold in the area that was supposed to ours.

The result is yet to be heard by the HAYA.