For centuries, European explorers sailed the waters of the Orinoco and Essequibo rivers in search of the elusive El Dorado, almost always disastrous expeditions in which they found neither the mythical gold nor the precious metals of legend, but disease and often death. But that’s not why they gave up. Dreams are dreams.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro believes he has found his own El Dorado in this inhospitable South American region, not in the form of treasures but in the eleven billion barrels of oil estimated to be in what is now a province of Guyana, and which have turned the former British colony of 800,000 inhabitants into one of the countries with the most potential in the hemisphere. Black gold contributed 62% of the country’s GDP in 2022 (three years earlier it was only 3%), and the income from its exploitation will exceed 1.5 billion euros this year.
Venezuelans in general – and not just the political class – think, however, that the fuel-rich region should be theirs, and claim that the borders established in 1899 were demarcated in a fraudulent and corrupt manner under the pressure and influence of the British Empire (Guyana was then British Guiana). President Nicolás Maduro has now rejected this claim and has threatened to take the territory by force. The opposition fears that his plan is to cancel the planned elections.
After announcing plans to create the Venezuelan province of Essequiba, give its inhabitants citizenship and licenses to the country’s companies for oil exploitation (which is now mainly carried out by the multinational ExxonMobil), Maduro has backed down after meeting in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines with Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, and both sides have pledged not to use force to resolve a dispute that dates back more than two centuries, to continue dialogue and establish a joint commission in the field of ministers of foreign affairs to discuss the problems. The Government of Georgetown considers that the matter should be resolved at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, but Caracas denies that it has jurisdiction.
Despite Guyana’s military consisting of only 4,150 soldiers, threats of annexation by Venezuela were never taken seriously due to the incompetence and corruption of the Bolivarian Armed Forces, the country’s economic problems and warning from the United States that it would not hesitate to intervene if necessary (as a warning it has carried out military maneuvers in the area). “In the age of populism, nothing can be ruled out – says the English analyst George Mathisson -. An attack would not make sense in pure logic, but neither did the operation of Argentine General Galtieri to get the Falklands in the early eighties, and even then he defied Margaret Thatcher, with the already known consequences.
In addition to appealing to the avarice of empires, the Essequibo was the cause of the last major diplomatic crisis between the United States and Great Britain, when in 1895 US President Grover Cleveland sent a letter to London invoking the Monroe Doctrine, which dictated that any political intervention by foreign powers in the Americas would be considered a hostile act by Washington.
At the time, the territorial dispute between the British Empire and Venezuela had already lasted more than half a century, and the United States pressured Downing Street to accept its mediation, under the principle that both Central and South America were its area of influence But London, proud, alleged that the Monroe Doctrine was contrary to international law, to which Cleveland responded by going to Congress to propose the creation of a commission to settle the dispute between Venezuela and what was then British Guiana, and warning that their decisions would be implemented “by any means necessary”, an implicit threat of the use of force.
In the end, the United Kingdom, which was already in quite a mess with the Boer War, reluctantly agreed to independent arbitration, which gave a decision that was much more favorable to it than it expected, as it generally respected the border as it had once been drawn by the German Robert Schomburgk, an employee of the British Empire. Great Britain had made the colony its own in 1814, following a treaty with the Netherlands, and only gave it up in 1966.
In 1962, in the midst of the Cold War, and concerned about a hypothetical communist advance in Latin America and the possible fall of Guyana under the Soviet sphere of influence, President John Kennedy planned to encourage both Venezuela and Brazil to pursue the his territorial ambitions in the region, but the initiative did not prosper and the following year he was assassinated in Dallas.
Venezuela has claimed sovereignty over the disputed area since its independence in 1811, considering the Essequibo River to be its natural border. Recently, in view of the serious economic situation, nationals of this country have settled in the area and live with a native English-speaking population with Guyanese culture. Although it is a former British colony, political, economic and cultural ties with the former metropolis have almost completely disappeared, and Guyana looks towards the United States and the Caribbean.
The British politician and adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh claimed in the 16th century that he had found El Dorado at the mouth of the Orinoco River, which is today Venezuela, and to prove it he mounted an ill-fated expedition in which his son died.
The search for that paradise continues, with some individuals willing to do anything. Oil is worth as much as gold.