The Essequibo Question

Kart van geheel Guajana of de Wilden-Kust (Map of the Whole of Guiana or the Savage Coast), 18th-century Dutch map produced by the publisher Isaak Tirion showing the northern coast of South America and its offshore islands with Guiana divided, from west to east, into Spanish, Dutch, and French sections, corresponding roughly to a part of present-day Venezuela and present-day Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. Source: Library of Congress.

The Guyanese politician and diplomat Carl Greenidge has had a varied career in that South American nation’s political sphere over the years, serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Finance and Secretary General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group.  Today, he joins us in his capacity as Agent for the government of Guyana before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where he is representing Guyana regarding the situation in the Essequibo region in the west of the country, a region which the government of neighboring Venezuela has in recent years claimed for itself and threatened to take over. We discuss the long and complex history of the region and the background for the current discourse.