Embroiled in a long-running border dispute with its larger neighbor Venezuela over a territory rich in natural resources, Guyana gained a potential diplomatic advantage by joining the U.N. Security Council.
Guyana, which ran unopposed for an elected seat last June, began its two-year term on the United Nations' powerful 15-nation council on Tuesday beside fellow newcomers Algeria, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and South Korea.
Guyana's U.N. Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett listed climate change, peacebuilding, women, youth and children in armed conflicts as the nation's main priorities. "It is precisely because we are small that we are forced to think big and to be creative in our approach," she said.
Ten of the council's seats rotate according to annual elections in the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly. The other five, which come with veto power, permanently belong to China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S.
Diplomats at the United Nations are keeping close watch over a dispute that has spilled over to the International Court of Justice – the U.N.'s highest court – and the Organization of American States.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has been "following with concern the recent escalation of tension between Guyana and Venezuela over the border controversy between the two countries," Guterres' office said last month. "He trusts that both parties will demonstrate good faith and avoid any action that would aggravate or extend the controversy."
The disputes goes back more than a century, but the discovery of oil and stirring of nationalist pride are among the factors that have reignited Venezuela's longstanding claims it was cheated by the colonial-era border deal.
During the 1890s, the United States encouraged Guyana and Venezuela to submit to binding arbitration to settle the matter.
That resulted in the 1897 Washington Treaty, which set up an international tribunal that eventually drew up the border between the two South American nations in 1899.
The tribunal granted the entire mouth of the Orinoco River and land on either side to Venezuela, and gave land to the east, extending to the Essequibo River, to the U.K.
That land became part of then-British Guyana. Venezuela reached a so-called Geneva Agreement with the U.K. about it in 1966, the same year Guyana gained its independence from the British colonial power.
The top U.N. court's authority ignored
Guyana, an impoverished former British colony of almost 800,000 people, now controls Essequibo and the US$1 billion a year it generates.
But after ExxonMobil's 2015 discovery of huge crude reserves there, Guyana and Venezuela quarreled over the potential riches. The U.S. also has interests in maintaining its oil supply.
The Caribbean community, or CARICOM, an initially English-speaking organization of 15 nations and territories, sided with Guyana in the dispute, saying the 1899 decision "definitely settled the boundary." Guyana is the only English-speaking nation in South America.
The U.N. was unable to settle a stalemate between the two sides, so the International Court of Justice was asked to intervene in 2018. The Essequibo region, also rich in diamonds, gold and timber, accounts for about two-thirds of Guyana's territory and 15% of its citizens.
In Dec. 2020, ICJ justices ruled they had jurisdiction in the matter. The U.N. court was set up at The Hague, Netherlands, in 1945 to settle disputes among nations.
An ICJ ruling on Dec. 1 told Venezuela it must from “refrain from taking any action which would modify that situation that currently prevails” in the oil- and mineral-rich Essequibo region.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government, however, ignored the U.N. court's authority and went ahead with a referendum in which Venezuelan voters overwhelmingly approved the creation of a new province in Essequibo.
The government, touting claims of sovereignty, ordered his state oil company PDVSA to issue exploratory drilling permits there.
Days later, the U.N. Security Council held a closed-door emergency session at Guyana's request. The meeting led to no action but put Venezuela on notice the dispute is a high priority.
At a meeting in mid-December, Maduro and Guyana's President Mohamed Irfaan Ali agreed to avoid any use of force and to not escalate tensions as they try to resolve the dispute.
Last week, however, Venezuela said it would keep deploying 6,000 troops nationwide until a British military vessel leaves Essequibo's coastline.
