Land disputes are nothing new to the world. Different countries, people, and groups can all lay claim to a certain piece of land, while another country, person, or group can say that it is theirs. This has been happening for centuries. What might be surprising to some is that these disputes do not only happen on land. They also tend to happen with maritime regions. For instance, look at a dispute between the developing countries of Guyana and Venezuela. In the late 1800s, the developing countries of Guyana, then a British territory, and Venezuela were on the verge of war. This was due to conflicting claims over a certain area called the Essequibo area. In order to avoid bloodshed, the two countries attempted to resolve the issue peacefully. They did this with the help of an Arbitral Tribunal. In 1897, the Arbitral Tribunal was brought to the area to determine the borders and but the dispute to rest. Two years later, Venezuela was awarded the mouth of the Orinoco River, while Guyana and Britain were awarded the Essequibo area. At the time, the area featuring the Orinoco River was thought to be valued more. Everything was “put to rest” and an agreement was signed in 1905. However, when collusion between a couple of the involved parties surfaced, Venezuela threw out the agreement and refused to follow something that seemed to be tainted. The thought of collusion came from a Venezuelan junior counsel who assisted in the 1899 case who wrote a “secret memorandum” in 1944. For the next nearly 50 years the two countries attempted to make things right with each other, but nothing was helping. Venezuela thought they were wronged, while Guyana thought otherwise and said that the dispute was supposed to be settled. In 2013, a bad situation to begin with quickly went south when Venezuela attempted to charge a rig searching for petroleum with violating Venezuela’s exclusive economic zone. The rig was searching for petroleum, with Guyana’s consent, in the area that Guyana and Venezuela had been feuding about for over a century. After this happened, a somewhat civil dispute went completely sour. Five years later, in 2018, Guyana filed an application to the International Court of Justice to finally put this century long dispute to rest. In the application, Guyana asked the ICJ to confirm that the 1899 ruling, and 1905 agreement, was valid and that Venezuela was to follow it. If it wasn’t for a couple of things that happened over the course of nearly one hundred years, the dispute would have been settled a long time ago. If the Venezuelan junior counsel who assisted in the 1899 ruling wouldn’t have written that “secret memorandum,” there wouldn’t have been an application filed to the ICJ. If the Venezuelan government didn’t attempt to charge the rig searching for oil in what Guyana considered their waters and territory, there might not have been a case filed to the ICJ. There is a very strong history that lies behind this long-standing dispute. So much went into the build-up of Guyana filing the application to the ICJ in 2018. What is very impressive is that there was never any blood shed between the two countries. They have been close but, luckily, shots have not been fired. This goes to show that even when tensions are high it is best to see how things will play out before declaring war.
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