The World Court (the ICJ) will today hear Guyana’s arguments to block Venezuela’s referendum which seeks to annex Essequibo which is set for December 3, 2023.
Here is a recap of the background on the controversy compiled by historian Dr Odeen Ishmael:
“The claim by Venezuela to the area West of the Essequibo River had actually recommenced in 1949 following the publication of a memorandum written by Severo Mallet-Prevost, a lawyer in the team that conducted the Venezuelan case before the arbitral tribunal in 1899. The memorandum written in 1944 claimed that the award that settled the boundary between Venezuela and Guyana in 1899 was a result of a “political deal” between Great Britain and Russia. A Russian Judge was the Chairman of the five-member arbitral tribunal.
In February 1962, when the UN Fourth Committee was discussing the issue of independence for British Guiana, Venezuela, basing its case on the Mallet-Prevost memorandum, officially made its contention through a memorandum presented to the Secretary General of the UN. The memorandum alleged that the Arbitral Award of 1899 was invalid, and put forward the claim that the region west of the Essequibo River was Venezuelan territory.
In reply to the Venezuelan contention, Sir Patrick Dean, a special British representative to the UN, on September 19, 1962, took the position that the border dispute had been settled by the 1899 Award, and that the question could not be reopened on the posthumous word of an aged lawyer who had nursed grievances against the Tribunal for the whole of his life. In his lengthy address to the Special Political Committee of the UN, Dean repudiated all Venezuelan claims to Guyanese territory.
The border issue was further discussed at another meeting of the UN Special Committee on November 12, 1962. At that meeting, Dr Marcos Falcon Briceno, Minister of External Relations of Venezuela, said that his country was not asking the UN to pass judgement on the substance of his country’s claim, and that he was merely putting on record the reasons why Venezuela could not recognise the 1899 Award as valid.
The British Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN, Colin Crowe, replied that the British Government did not accept that there was any frontier dispute to discuss. He added that British experts conducted a very thorough examination of the records and were completely satisfied that there was no justification whatsoever for reopening this frontier question.
Crowe announced that the British Government, with the concurrence of the Government of British Guiana, was prepared to discuss with the Venezuelan Government, through diplomatic channels, arrangements for a tripartite Venezuela-British-Guiana United Kingdom examination of the voluminous documentary material relevant to this question. He added that this was not an offer to engage in substantive talks about the revision of the frontier, but to dispel any doubts that the Venezuelan Government had about the validity or propriety of the Arbitral Award.
After an agreement to this effect was reached between the British and Venezuelan Governments, Venezuelan experts examined British documents in London from July 30 to September 11, 1963… On November 5-7, 1963, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Venezuela met the Foreign Secretary of the UK to review the progress in the examination of the documents. The Foreign Ministers agreed that the British expert, Sir Geoffrey Meade, should go to Caracas to examine any documents which the Venezuelan Government might wish to produce to support their allegation that the Award was improperly arrived at. Meade was in Caracas from December 3 to 12, 1963, and examined the relevant documents produced by the Venezuelan Government. (The examination of documents in the two capitals by both sides continued in 1964 and into 1965 and the reports of the experts appointed by each side were exchanged. Nevertheless, Venezuela refused to be convinced even though it could not produce any document to support its contention).”
The “Geneva Agreement”, the basis of the UN Secretary General’s decision, was hammered out in negotiations on February 16-17, 1966, between Britain, Venezuela, and British Guiana.
