Dear Editor,

The territorial intrusions and harassment of Guyana by Venezuela

is a blatant violation of international law, totally unjustified and illegal. While it is heartening to hear that the US supports the 1899 Award, I believe two points need to be reiterated or emphasised.

First, we must note that Venezuela has “bullied” the UN and its

General Secretaries with sweet promises, deception, and disinformation for over 53 years – and with such a unique capability, this can continue perpetually – because her Constitution apparently encourages such behaviour as Great Britain (GB) had predicted.

With pressure from the US in 1884, GB explained that her reluctance to arbitration was because she feared that the “Venezuelan Constitution would be used as a pretext for disobedience to any award,” since its Constitution prevents the relinquishment of any part of territory by treaty which her people or Government claims to be indubitably Venezuelan – even if it runs counter of international law.

Secondly, voluminous records from the Spanish, British and Dutch official archives in combination with the verbatim records of every word spoken at the 1897-9 tribunal provide indisputable evidence that Venezuela has no claim to more territory, and in fact, “if the matter is treated as one of strict right”, those very records confirm that Venezuela was not entitled to the Orinoco River region but was gifted to her because of a “compromise really diplomatic in character” secured by probably the most prestigious, influential Tribunal legal team-led by the former US President General Harrison.

It also confirms the findings of the 1899 Tribunal research team led by Professor Burr, that “if British Guiana fails to get the boundary placed close to or at the Orinoco it will not be for lack of evidence”. Though the Orinoco was a huge loss to British Guiana (BG), she did not protest it but went ahead with Venezuela to accept, ratify and jointly demarcate the boundary as ordered by the 1899 Award. In the end, President McKinley in his address to Congress, declared the tribunal’s “unanimous decision” on the border was “equally satisfactory to both parties”, thereby “ending a long lived controversy”.

Thirdly, it is crucial to note that while the media and some academic experts attribute the reopening of the 1899 Award to the independence of BG, it accounts only for the time-frame but not for the reason. The precise reason is intertwined with the foreign interventions of the 1960s. While we are well past this painful, regrettable era, it is critical to revisit it briefly in order to identify specifically why the Venezuelan claim was reopened. Tim Weiner, New York Times, reports that “though many Presidents have ordered

the CIA to undermine foreign leaders”, they say, “the Jagan papers are a rare smoking gun: a clear written record, without veiled words or plausible denials, of a President’s command to depose a Premier”. A massive amount of official documents from the now declassified CIA files, the US State Department, British Parliament, British Law Enforcement Files and Records; and books written by former CIA agents pinpoint micro details of the CIA covert operations: saboteur names, sabotage location and targeted individuals along with details of the date, time, place, weapons, group and persons used to carry out each operation. At the June 28, 1963 conference in Birch Grove, President Kennedy and the British Prime Minister MacMillan, met to approve and monitor the progress of the three major components of the CIA covert operation, triangulating the removal of the Premier.

The first component of the covert operation was monetary assistance and intimidation training of the BG Trades Union Congress and affiliated unions’ utilised during their strikes. The second component was the X-13 plan that caused death, havoc and destruction across BG. After two sophisticated operations, at the Demerara River and Freedom House in July 1964,

the “Police established the existence of an organised terrorist department

within LFS party”, centrally directed by LFS and “HG” of the PNC; Ishmael of

the TUC, and former top brass of the Police. The arrests of Emmanuel Fairbaum and the revelation of the X-13 plan would bring the violence to an end sometime at the end August 1964.

The third component of the covert operations was the application of external pressure: On March 15, 1962 the US State Department memo to the British Foreign Office, asked Britain to apply pressure on Guyana’s Premier, via a “thorough airing of Venezuelan claim,” and indeed, the New York Times headline read, “Britain would air Venezuelan claim”.

After the Soviet Group discovered a significant oil-bearing area of about 40,000 square miles in Essequibo, Venezuela decided to act. Their Foreign Minister, Dr Bricano told the UN assembly in October 1962 that “Venezuela was despoiled by the 1899 arbitration award”. At the UN, foreign ambassadors in shock “expressed alarm at this revival of a claim settled by arbitration 65 years ago. It said that once such review of long-settled boundaries are allowed, there will be almost no frontier that cannot be challenged”. And indeed, to handle such Venezuelan-type erroneous claims, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in 1960, had ruled that “a state was precluded from challenging previously established boundaries, even though defined irregularly and defective legally, if that State (ie Venezuela) had recognised or acquiesced in those lines or failed to protest against them particularly when the contiguous state (ie Guyana) had relied in good faith upon such acquiescence and had considered the matter finally settled”. Until 1962, not a single official protest by Venezuela can be found but an exceedingly large number of official celebrations flood the record. It is therefore not surprising that Venezuela is trying to avoid the ICJ insisting instead, on a one-to-one negotiation with Guyana or a UN solution that is easier to manipulate.

Nevertheless, an abundance of evidence shows the US pressure on Great Britain is the root cause of the territorial problems Guyana faces today. Hal Brands found that during the Cold War, the US “preoccupation with communism” drove the White House to remove “leaders in foreign countries not in a war with the US”, but “whose only crime consisted of being in the cross fire between the White House and the Kremlin”. But that is history! Now, the fact is that the Cold War is long over but Guyana is left to battle a monster all by itself. Collectively, it appears that Guyana has forgiven the US for the ills and havocs caused by its Cold War errors. It’s about time, however, that the US accepts some responsibility for its mistake.

It is only fair that the US and England come together, and lead the way back to the ICJ or onto a real solution – so Guyana can enjoy its titled lands in peace and harmony.

Yours respectfully,  

Paul Mohan