For centuries, European explorers navigated 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 they did find illnesses and often death. . But that didn’t mean they gave up. Dreams are dreams.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro believes he has found his own El Dorado in that inhospitable South American region, not in the form of treasures but in the eleven billion barrels of oil that are estimated to exist in what is now a province of Guyana, and that They have turned the former British colony of 800,000 inhabitants into one of the countries with the greatest potential in the hemisphere. Black gold contributed 62% of the country’s GDP in 2022 (three years before 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 – however think that the fuel-rich region should be theirs, alleging that the borders established in 1899 were demarcated in a deceitful and corrupt way under the pressure and influence of the British Empire ( Guyana was then British Guiana). President Nicolás Maduro has now fueled that demand and threatened to take over 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 nationality and licenses to companies in the country for oil exploitation (which is now mainly carried out by the multinational ExxonMobil), Maduro has backed down after meeting in San Vincent and the Grenadines with Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, with both sides committing not to use force to resolve a dispute that dates back more than two centuries, to continue dialogue and to establish a joint commission at the level of foreign ministers to discuss problems. The Georgetown government considers that the issue should be resolved in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, but Caracas denies that it has jurisdiction.
Although Guyana’s army is only made up of 4,150 soldiers, threats of annexation by Venezuela were never taken completely seriously due to the incompetence and corruption of the Bolivarian Armed Forces, the country’s economic problems and the warning by 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 era of populism, nothing can be ruled out,” says English analyst George Mathisson. An attack would not make sense in pure logic, but neither did Argentine General Galtieri’s operation to take over the Falklands in the early eighties, and yet he challenged Margaret Thatcher with the already known consequences.
In addition to appealing to the greed of empires, the Essequibo was the cause of the last great diplomatic crisis between the United States and Great Britain when in 1895 the American president Grover Cleveland sent a letter to London invoking the Monroe doctrine, according to which any Political intervention by foreign powers in the Americas would be considered a hostile act by Washington.
By then the territorial dispute between the British Empire and Venezuela had already lasted more than half a century, and the United States was pressuring Downing Street to accept its mediation, under the principle that both Central and South America were its backyard. 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 resolve the dispute between Venezuela and the then British Guiana, and warning that its decisions would be implemented. “by any means necessary,” an implicit threat to use force.
In the end the United Kingdom, which had already had enough trouble with the Boer War, reluctantly accepted independent arbitration, whose decision was much more favorable than it expected, generally respecting the border as it had been drawn in its day 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 renounced it 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 contemplated encouraging both Venezuela and Brazil to pursue their territorial ambitions in the region, but the initiative did not prosper and the following year he was murdered in Dallas.
Venezuela claims sovereignty over the disputed area since its independence in 1811, considering that the Essequibo River is the natural border. Lately, in view of the dire economic situation, nationals of that country have settled in the area, living alongside a native English-speaking population with Guyanese culture. Despite being 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, in what is now Venezuela, and to prove it he mounted an unfortunate expedition in which his son died. The search for that paradise continues, with some willing to do anything. Oil is worth as much as gold.