The world’s major powers are threatening the desire of the Caribbean region to remain as a “Zone of Peace.” Although the territorial dispute between Guyana and Venezuela is over 125 years old, and notwithstanding the 2023 Argyle Agreement signed between the two countries in St Vincent and the Grenadines, in which both countries agreed not to take action which can provoke conflict, tension is again erupting.
Earlier this month, a Venezuelan military vessel approached and accosted the operators of a floating platform owned by American energy giant Exxon in an offshore area considered to be belonging to Guyana. Protesting the “aggression” of the incident, Guyana President Mohamed Irfaan Ali activated his country’s military assets in the area.
“Guyana’s maritime boundaries are recognised under international law, and this incursion is a matter of grave concern,” President Ali said then.
However, Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro denied any wrongdoing on the part of his country, arguing that the patrol ship was operating in what he claims to be “disputed international waters.” Guyana, however, has been given the right under international law to continue to have administrative control over the area.
The situation is aggravated by two realities: one is the Argyle Agreement and the other is the fact that both countries are also awaiting arbitration on the dispute by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Venezuela’s renewed attempt to claim and confiscate Guyana’s sovereign Essequibo territory, which was decided upon by arbitration back in 1899 in favour of Britain, then the colonial authority of British Guiana, was initially accepted by the Venezuelan government. But by 1962, then-Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt declared the said judgment to be “null and void.” He then resuscitated claims to the Essequibo region, which comprises an estimated 70 per cent of Guyana’s territory and in which there are rich energy deposits.
President Maduro is now taking up those claims, consequent upon the discovery of large volumes of hydrocarbon resources in the Essequibo. In 2024, largely a result of exploration and production of oil and gas, Guyana registered the highest expected Gross Domestic Product growth rate in the world, at 26 per cent.
These renewed and aggressive claims on Guyana’s sovereign territory, therefore, must be placed in the context of the not-too-new phenomenon of countries with large and overwhelming military capacity occupying lands of relatively weak sovereign states in an attempt for some benefit.
Russia’s takeover of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014, and its current confiscation and occupation of a further 20 per cent of that country, is but one such example of the strong countries taking advantage of the weak.
US President Donald Trump has reiterated his intention to “retake” the Panama Canal, rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, and his continuing stated intention to drag Greenland, Canada and the Gaza into American possession are consistent with the phenomenon of domination by a world superpower.
When the most militarily powerful countries engage in occupations and takeovers, they then lack the moral rectitude to prevent it from happening elsewhere.
For a couple of decades now, the call has been consistently made for a new world order to achieve equity, fairness and ultimately serve as the basis for peace and stability. Those with the power, however, are not listening.
