President Ali’s sharing of Guyana’s correct map goes viral with support from Guyanese on social media
Social media platforms, including Facebook and WhatsApp, were on Wednesday flooded with a picture of a map of Guyana as demarcated some 123 years ago.
First posted by President Irfaan Ali, the image went viral as it seeks to assert the country’s territorial integrity in the face of new claims to Guyana’s Essequibo by Venezuela.
Thousands of citizens joined the President by reposting the picture with captions that read “all of it belongs to us” along with other well-known slogans like “not a blade of grass.”
The move came days after another map appeared on social media, purporting to show that Guyana’s Essequibo and its oil-rich maritime space was the territory of Venezuela.
That map was posted days before the 123rd anniversary of an Arbitral Tribunal Award – created by the Treaty of Washington of 1897 – where the boundaries between Guyana and Venezuela secured a full, perfect and final settlement.
Guyana still accepts and celebrates the award as such.
Venezuela had applauded the award but now steps are afoot to alter the official boundary map although the matter is before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The purported annexing of Essequibo in the new images posted by online platforms managed out of Venezuela did not go unnoticed and Guyanese responded appropriately.
Accompanying the picture posted by President Ali was a caption where he reminded that “as required by the 1897 Treaty of Washington and the 1899 Arbitral Award, the boundary as determined by the Award was demarcated on the ground between 1900 and 1904 by Commissioners appointed by Britain and Venezuela.”
The new developments from Venezuela have also grabbed the attention of international actors with a top United States (US) official tweeting that the existing land boundary should be respected unless or until otherwise determined by a competent legal body.
Brian Nichols, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, tweeted that the US supports a peaceful resolution to the Guyana/ Venezuela border controversy.
Guyana recently had cause to also remind of its commitment to a peaceful resolution to the controversy as articulated by President Ali in his recent address to the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The Foreign Affairs Ministry in Guyana issued a statement following fresh claims by Venezuela in a Communique issued on September 30, 2022.
In the communique, the Nicolas Maduro government rejected what it said was Guyana’s misrepresentation and manipulations regarding the controversy.
Venezuela is claiming that Dr Ali’s speech at the UNGA disrespected Venezuela’s historical and fair position and accused Guyana of fake accusations on the issue.
Guyana wants a ‘judicial settlement’ to the controversy.
The International Court of Justice has already affirmed its jurisdiction in the matter.
President Ali had said Guyana will not support any use of force to settle any dispute or controversy among nations.
Guyana is seeking to obtain a final and binding judgement that the 1899 Arbitral Award, which established the location of the land boundary between then British Guiana and Venezuela, remains valid and that the Essequibo region belongs to Guyana and not Venezuela.
The President of Venezuela needs to step aside on this matter. His mentor Chavez was well informed on this issue.
The President of Guyana made the correct tweet.
The territorial grabbing the Essequibo Region and its appurtenant resource rich maritime areas of the Maduro regime against the rule/tenets/ principles of international law and the sanctity of treaties continues to want to deter and deny the aspirations of the friendly and peace-loving people of Guyana to their inalienable sovereign right to explore and monetise their natural endowment of abundant natural and human resources located within their internationally recognised borders for the unhindered advancement of their people with the threat of the use of superior force to settle a most trumped up vulgar and obscene claim to Guyanese patrimony and territorial integrity settled over 123 years ago.