Apologies if I get some info wrong. Recently, I’ve been looking into the region of the South America that I’ve known next to nothing on - the trio of Suriname, Guyana and french Guiana. From what I’ve seen, it looks like Guyana was on a good track for a bit and then became the regular capitalist republic with some nominally good numbers, but they kept the “cooperative republic” bit in their name.
From what I’ve read, the Tigri area is disputed with Suriname due to it initially being a Dutch colony later overtaken by British Guyana. I’ve also read that the region of Guyana Esquiba was basically drawn to Guyana by a brit after he was sent to draw the borders, but it’s such a large chunk of the country that I wanna know if there’s anything else to this claim.
Which brings me to the question - is the claim on Guyana Esquiba by Venezuela still relevant, and should it be treated as such? Am I missing any additional context here on that claim or perhaps on the Tigri area?
It’s been awhile since I read on this but to your question about Venezuela, I do believe the territory was Venezuela’s and arbitrarily taken from them via some colonial border fuckery. Being that they are the much more revolutionary of the parties involved, and have a legitimate claim, I do think Venezuela’s claim is still relevant
A good read on the topic:
Thank you, this was highly informative. I hope that Guyana and Suriname are eventually able to break off western control just like Venezuela did.
Ironically, Venezuela appealed to Washington for help at the time, using the Monroe Doctrine as a justification to prevent further colonization by the British Empire in the hemisphere. US President Grover Cleveland eventually declared the matter of US interest and forced Great Britain to sign a Treaty of Arbitration with Venezuela in Washington in 1897. Two years later, the Arbitration Tribunal, which had no representatives from Venezuela but instead two arbitrators from the United States said to be acting in Venezuela’s interest, ruled in favor of Britain.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The Esequibo contains oil, that’s why it’s disputed. IIRC Venezuela’s claim over the Esequibo start because when there were attempts to establish La Patria Grande at the moment when La Gran Colombia still existed, the Esequibo was part of La Gran Colombia. This stance has been maintained after the dissolution of the former State and the formation of Venezuela, and supported also by legal claims such as the one posted before about the US first ruling in favour of them. Today, of course, there is no power that wants Venezuela to hold those lands.
