Dear Editor,
The arguments of Venezuela and claims of fraud are based on the selective use of historical facts. They have chosen to revert back to what took place from 1777. If we are going to ignore the period of the territorial wars between the powers of that period, which resulted in territorial ownership changes, then we must also consider the original owners of the land before the Spanish came to South America and forcefully took what didn’t belong to them. Editor, no present day power is willing to relinquish the gains they have made over that period. Thus it is clear that Venezuela’s argument is presumptuous and rooted in hypocrisy.
If their claim is that the United Kingdom committed a fraud in determining the land it owned via conquest, then Spain, Portugal and the Catholic Church committed the largest fraud known to man by claiming ownership of the new world when it was already inhabited. If Venezuela truly believes in their argument then they should relinquish all of their land back to its original inhabitants and owners who are the Amerindians. They were here before Columbus “discovered” what was not his nor Spain’s.
Other countries in Europe began to fight over territory as a result of the Pope’s decision to divide the “new world” between Portugal and Spain. This resulted in many wars and has led to numerous treaties and agreements, including the signed agreement of 1899 between Venezuela and the United Kingdom that settled the border dispute before Guyana’s independence. A quote from the Award, “Award of the tribunal of arbitration constituted under Article I of the Treaty of Arbitration signed at Washington, between Great Britain and the United States of Venezuela, regarding the boundary between the colony of British Guiana and the United States of Venezuela, decision of 3 October 1899.”
Venezuela signed it and there is no evidence of it being signed under duress during the process. They waited until Guyana’s Independence to raise an objection, which took place more than 50 years later. Another quote from the award “Rules. (a.) Adverse holding or prescription during a period of fifty years shall make a good title. The Arbitrators may deem exclusive political control of a district, as well as actual settlement thereof, sufficient to constitute adverse holding or to make title by prescription.” Editor, it is clear that Venezuela does not have a strong legal argument by which to reclaim territory that has been out of their possession for over a century without conceding ownership of everything it currently possesses. Is the world willing to undo all that took place since the 1400s?
Sincerely,
Jamil Changlee
Chairman
The Cooperative Republicans of Guyana
