Management and Resolution of Territorial Conflicts: The Case of Venezuela

• Author: Cedric L. Joseph
• Pages: 327-337

Cedric Joseph 327327

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Management and Resolution of Territorial

Conflicts: The Case of Venezuela

C E D R IC L. J O S E P H

Former Head of the Presidential

Secretariat, Guyana

21

It would appear that, whatever date was

scheduled, it was highly probable that the

conference on ‘Governance, Conflict Analysis

and Conflict Resolution’ would be convened

amidst or alongside some conflict, so much

has conflict been with us. Today, the drama of

brinkmanship continues unrelentingly. We

could not invite so many esteemed persons

without offering some graphic evidence of

conflict to get your teeth into. Indeed, you may

have already concluded that, like the hapless

people of Crete, we have made much more

history than we can consume.

The societal, political and ethnic conflict

which has unfolded over the decades has a

preponderance in its own right for the

consideration currently being given to it. To

include one territorial conflict in the discussion

is to open another aspect in an already weighty

deliberation. Then, there are two territorial

controversies; and that is more than a bonus

for restive minds.

That at the commencement of this twenty-

first century, we are still obliged to manage

the results of the exploitations and depredations

of a distant age constitutes a major diversion

of our strained human, intellectual and

financial resources. And this is taking place

within the societal upheavals that continue to

undermine the cohesion and existence of the

state. Even now, there are some who dispute

the very concept of statehood and find its motto

inappropriate.

There is nothing abstract about the primary

national interest of Guyana’s foreign policy

in the preservation of its territorial integrity;

there is nothing contrived about it. The

assertion of the territorial claims by both

Venezuela and Suriname leaves no doubt

about the real threat of dismemberment. And,

as it happens, the claims to territory take place

against the background of domestic

disturbances.

Venezuela reopened the issue of the border

during February 1962 precisely with the

domestic political upheavals in the period

leading to political independence. Suriname

took opportunity of the situation to announce

in August 1962 its first official claim to the

New River triangle. The reassertion of the

claims has continued to the present day only

varying in intensity and coinciding with times

of stress.

The change of government in Guyana in

October 1992, and the external assessments

of domestic instability and vulnerability

prompted some exploratory diplomacy from

Venezuela with its proposals in 1995 for an

environmental treaty, which would have

stymied development in the Essequibo, and

for globality to bring the entire relationship,

including the border, within a bilateral

framework and outside of the United Nations