A lot of people are probably not aware that there are disputes going on all over the globe about territorial rights. The most public battles are between the Ukraine and Russia and Israel and Palestine over the Gaza Strip.

But, did you know that right here down below us, in South America, there is an issue brewing between the Caribbean nation of Guyana and Venezuela? Their fight has been brewing since 1897. That is how long the Guyanese people have been living under the threat of an invasion from Venezuelan leaders.

Historical data shows that the debate between Guyana and Venezuela started back in 1897 when Venezuela claimed more than half of what was then British Guyana during the Latin American Wars.

According to history.gov, “in 1814, Great Britain had acquired British Guiana (now Guyana) by treaty with the Netherlands. Because the treaty did not define a western boundary, the British commissioned Robert Schomburgk, a surveyor and naturalist, to delineate that boundary. His 1835 survey resulted in what came to be known as the Schomburgk Line, a boundary that effectively claimed an additional 30,000 square miles for Guiana.”

For decades, Venezuelan leaders did not press the issue to resolve the dispute because the territory has been uninhabited — lot of forest areas. It was not until around 2015 when Exxon Mobil discovered an oil-rich source near the shores of the Essequibo River territory that eyebrows started being raised.

Suddenly, this undeveloped nation of approximately 750,000 people (2000 data), found themselves with an economic boom. Venezuela, an oil rich country with a population of 24 million, renewed its fight to reclaim land along the river. U.N. Secretaries-General, Ban Ki-moon and António Guterres, tried to step in and help the countries to come to an agreement but they were unsuccessful in finding a middle ground.

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Note:

In Guyana, the largest ethnic groups are the Indo-Guyanese, who make up 40% of the population, the Afro-Guyanese, who make up 29%, and the Guyanese of mixed heritage, who make up 20%.

In Venezuela, about 51% of the population is mestizo (mixed white and Indigenous), followed by Europeans and Arabs at 43% and Africans at 3.6%.

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