Guyana/Venezuela border controversy: Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs reaffirms US support for a peaceful resolution

In light of Venezuela renewing its spurious claims over Guyana’s territory amid the matter currently before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United States has reiterated its support for a peaceful resolution of the border controversy.
This statement was made by US Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Ambassador Brian A. Nichols. In a post on his official Twitter platform on Tuesday, the State Department official reaffirmed his country’s support for a peaceful resolution between Guyana and Venezuela.
“The 1899 arbitral award determined the land boundary between Guyana and Venezuela and should be respected unless or until otherwise determined by a competent legal body. The US supports a peaceful resolution to this issue,” the tweet from Ambassador Nichols stated.

His support comes two days after Guyana Government also reiterated its commitment to peaceful resolution of the controversy.
President Dr Irfaan Ali’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) last month had apparently ruffled feathers in Venezuela.
In his address at the 6th UN plenary session, the Guyanese Leader had made reference to the border controversy with Venezuela. At the time, President Ali quoted UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, when he said that they were “committed to make the most of every diplomatic tool for the pacific settlement of disputes, as set out in the Charter of the United Nations”.
Those tools include negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and judicial settlement – relevant tools in the matter of Guyana’s sovereignty and territorial integrity – challenged and threatened by Venezuela.
“In this case, ‘judicial settlement’ as determined by the Secretary General himself. The world’s nations can be assured that Guyana shall remain true to those peaceful processes and deny every effort to depart from them. The International Court of Justice has already affirmed its jurisdiction in the matter,” President Ali had informed the General Assembly.
However, these words seem to have cause some unease in Caracas and the Spanish-speaking republic issuing a statement on September 30 in which they repeated many of their spurious claims regarding the border controversy.
In response last weekend, Guyana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stood behind President Ali’s words. The Ministry also held up the words of the UN Secretary General and pointed out that the judicial settlement route to settle the controversy was determined by the Secretary General himself.
“The world’s nations can be assured that Guyana shall remain true to those peaceful processes and deny every effort to depart from them. The international court of justice has already affirmed its jurisdiction in the matter,” the Ministry had said.

Campaign
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, there was a widespread campaign on social media with many government officials and other stakeholders, sharing a map of Guyana to declare that everything within the country’s border is “we own”.
Venezuela is laying claims to more than two-thirds of Guyana’s landmass, which is in Essequibo, and a portion of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), in which almost 11 billion barrels of oil have been discovered over the past seven years and oil production activities are ongoing.
Guyana approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2018 seeking a final and binding judgement to reinforce that the 1899 Arbitral Award remains valid and binding on all parties as well as legal affirmation that Guyana’s Essequibo region, which contains much of the country’s natural resources, belongs to Guyana and not Venezuela.
Guyana moved to the World Court after exhausting all means of negotiation with Venezuela and the failed good offices process between the two South American neighbours. The Spanish-speaking nation had initially refused to participate in the proceedings and had even challenged the court’s jurisdiction to hear the matter. But in December 2020, the ICJ established that it has jurisdiction to hear the substantive case – something which Venezuela did not accept.
Back in March of this year, Guyana had submitted its written arguments for its memorial to the ICJ, which was a requirement by the court following its December 18, 2020, decision that it had the jurisdiction to hear the case against Venezuela.
Venezuela has since filed an objection, which, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, is nothing more than a bid to delay the substantial hearing of the 1899 Arbitral award case before the ICJ, after refusing to join the proceedings since 2018.
Various countries and organisations have already thrown their support behind the judicial settlement of the case. In March, the United States (US) had expressed support for Guyana’s territorial border controversy case, and its stance was reiterated during a meeting between US Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Caribbean Affairs and Haiti, Barbara A Feinstein, and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.
The Caribbean Community (Caricom), has also reaffirmed support for Guyana in its border controversy with Venezuela, urging the Spanish-speaking country to participate in the judicial process before the ICJ.
Support also came in June of this year from the Commonwealth.
In a major decision coming out of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda, the Commonwealth Heads all threw their support behind the judicial process. (G8)