Guyana–Venezuela border

Two overlapping claims

Before 1899 both sides claimed huge, overlapping areas. Britain’s widest claim took in the whole Cuyuni basin, almost to the Orinoco; Venezuela’s took in everything west of the Essequibo River, about two-thirds of British Guiana. Britain’s claim rested on the old Dutch colonies it acquired in 1814, Venezuela’s on the poorly defined Spanish claims it inherited.^[1]

In 1840 Britain sent the engineer Robert Schomburgk to survey a boundary, but his “Schomburgk Line” satisfied neither government. On 2 February 1897 the two countries agreed in Washington to submit the dispute to arbitration, and to accept the result as binding.^[1]

The Paris award

The tribunal met in Paris and gave its award on 3 October 1899. In a brief description it ran the line from Punta Playa on the coast to the Barima River, along the Mururuma and Amacuro rivers, across the Imataca Mountains, along the northern bank of the Cuyuni and up the Venamo, and then straight to the summit of Mount Roraima.^[1] Its British, American and Russian arbitrators unanimously awarded the disputed territory to British Guiana.^[2]

A mixed British–Venezuelan commission surveyed the line each dry season from 1900 to 1905, fixing 25 positions, though it cleared and marked only the short coastal sector. The tripoint with Brazil on Roraima was agreed in 1932.^[1] The boundary runs through dense rainforest, from coastal swamps through hills to the sandstone table mountains of the south.^[1]

“Starting from the coast at Punta Playa the line of boundary shall run in a straight line to the Barima River at its junction with the Mururuma River”^[1]

Reopened

Venezuela accepted the boundary for more than sixty years, then reversed its position on the eve of Guyana’s independence in 1966, arguing that the award came from collusion between the British and Russian arbitrators.^[2] It had first raised the matter in 1962, saying it had never recognised the award.^[1]

Guyana took the case to the International Court of Justice in March 2018, asking it to confirm the 1899 award. The court upheld its jurisdiction in December 2020 and rejected Venezuela’s objection in April 2023, and ordered Venezuela not to change Guyana’s control of the territory. In December 2023 Venezuela held a referendum endorsing a “Guayana Esequiba” state, and in April 2024 passed a law claiming to incorporate it. The court heard the merits from 4 to 11 May 2026.^[2]