Two-thirds of Guyana are in dispute

Press, 23 June 1981, Page 16

Two-thirds of Guyana are in dispute

Bv

GWYNNE DYER

in London

Many countries have territorial disputes with their neighbours,. but few can face as grave a situation as Guyana: more than two-thirds of its national territory is claimed by Venezuela. To make matters worse for Guyana. Venezuela is in the right, and it is now pursuing the claim actively. Eaply this year, the Venezuelan ' Minister of Youth, Mr Charles Brewster Carias, led an unarmed expedition into the disputed area, known as the Essequibo region. Venezuelan newspapers and television nowcarry reports on the dispute almost daily, and on June 25-27 Mr Jose Zambrano Velasquez, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, will be in London to disquss the issue with Guyana’s former colonial ruler.

The dispute is unquestionably Britain's fault, although it is now Guyana's problem. When Venezuela gained independence from Spain in 1821 its eastern border ran along the Essequibo River, the historic border between the Spanish Empire and British Guiana (as Guyana was' then known). Throughout the 19th century, however, Britain continually took advantage of Venezuela's weakness to push the boundary westwards.

Futile Venezuelan protests ended in a diplomatic rupture with Britain in the 1880 s. Caracas then sought United States assistance, invoking the Monroe Doctrine by which Washington had promised to resist any further attempts at expan-

sion by European imperial, powers in the Western Hemi-j sphere. However. London seized the opportunity that arose when Washington's atten-' lion was distracted .by the) Spanish-American War in 1899. It hurriedly convened an international arbitration council in Paris, which ruled that the whole Essequibo region — t 160.000 sq kms, an area largerthan Greece — belonged to ■ Britain. It was monstrously' unfair: the members of the.' arbitration council were : Britain and Russia, and Venezuela was not even represented. There the matter rested for two . generations, but Venezuelans never forgot the wrong that had been done to them. When the discussions that' led to Guyana's independence began in 1962, Caracas revived the claim at once. In 1970, when Caracas was particularly worried that the Socialist Government of the Prime Minister Mr Forbes Burnham in Guyana was falling under Cuban influence,, it agreed to a 12-year moratorium on the issue. With the moratorium due to expire in June, 1982, however, the dispute has leapt back into prominence in Venezuelan politics. Few of the 750,000 Guyanans, who almost all live in a narrow coastal strip near Georgetown, the capital, have never even visited the disputed region. The few tens of thousands of Indians who inhabit the jungles of the Essequibo receive almost

no assistance from the impoverished Guyanan Government. Many have turned to the Venezuelan, authorities for help, but basically they couldn’t care less whose flag they have to salute.

The only potential economic importance of the region to Guyana lies in a projected giant hydro-electric dam on the upper Mazuruni River. However, this project would only be practical if most of the electricity could be sold to Venezuela, since Guyana could not use it all.

Such co-operation once seemed to offer a basis for compromise. In 1977 Venezuela's former President, Mr Carlos Andres Perez, was on the verge of offering a deal by which Caracas-would back this project financially in return for the cession of a portion of the north-east Essequibo to assuage Venezuelan national’ pride.

The offer was never made, however, because Mr Perez's advisers feared a nationalist backlash in Venezuela's 1978 presidential elections. His victorious opponent in those elections, President Luis Herrera Campins, has never made a similar proposal, and in any case it is doubtful that the Guyanan Government could afford to accept it.

The political position of Guyana's Prime Minister. Mr Forbes Burnham, is desperately insecure, based as it is on the shaky support of Guyana's black minority. Mr Burnham’s re-election last December in

flagrantly fraudulent elections was only possible because blacks have a virtual monopoly of jobs in the police, the army and the civil service. Even these instruments of control might crumble in his hands, however, if he made territorial concessions to Venezuela that would be seen locally as a betrayal of the national interest.

Mr Burnham travelled to Caracas in April to reject Venezuela's claim in person. Caracas immediately retaliated by turning down Guyana’s request to be included in the Mexican-Venezuelan scheme to provide cheap oil to the poorer Caribbean countries, and on his

return to Georgetown. Mr Burnham warned his people to “be ready for any Venezuelan aggression." Official sources in Caracas have hinted privately that a Venezuelan military take-over "cannot be discounted.” Against such a big and rich opponent (Venezuela's 12 million people have the third highest per-capita income in the Western Hemisphere). Mr Burnham's only hope would be to call in Cuban help under the recently-signed military assistance pact.

That could turn out to be merely a different form of suicide for Mr Burnham, however. Despite his Government's close diplomatic links with

Cuba, it is clear that Dr Castro would prefer to deal with the leader of the opposition People's Progressive Party, the pro-Moscow Marxist. Mr Cheddi Jagan. who has the support of the East Indian majority of the population. Once Cuban troops were in the country, it would probably not be long before Mr Jagan was in power.

All of Mr Burnham's options look grim, but in that very grimness there may be hope. For unless the Venezuelan Government would really prefer to have Mr Cheddi Jagan and the Cubans for neighbours, it will probably not push matters to a decision for the moment.