Dear Editor,
Caricom has issued a press release following the conclusion of its confab last weekend. In that, Caricom has finally mustered barely enough forthrightness and courage to call on “Venezuela to withdraw those elements of its controversial maritime decree that apply to the territory and waters of Guyana and other Caricom member countries.”
It is regrettable that the distinguished leaders were unable to reference the source of the problem and render a dictum on the 1899 arbitral award when the dispute was finally settled. By law both sides were bound to accept the decision of the 1899 arbitration. And, the funny thing is that both parties did until 1962, when strange circumstances intervened to cause Venezuela to reject at the United Nations a long-settled dispute. Caricom’s leaders should have little difficulty pronouncing on the finality of the 1899 award.
There have been over the centuries hundreds of border disputes around the world, some long settled in the 1700s, 1800s and 1900s. It is hard to contemplate the turmoil in the world if countries under capricious leaders looked for any flimsy pretext to call into question long settled boundaries. An even harder question is how do small countries defend themselves against the bullyism of the Goliaths of the world? It was a Foreign Minister of Guyana who told the United Nations in 1966, “Small nations look to the super powers of the world to uphold international law”.
Will they do so in 2015?
The SN article on the Caricom communiqué did cite unnamed analysts who see Caricom’s statement as “a balancing act due to Caracas’s PetroCaribe fund and other aid facilities.” The reality is: Give me aid and I will be effectively silenced or I will perform the balancing act.
Caricom needs to find its spine. It can do better.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Persaud