VENEZUELA'S CLAIM TO THE ESSEQUIBO TERRITORY

This book of Professor Rafael Badell Madrid, "Venezuela's Claim to the Essequibo" unfolds or can be read in three different ways. In the first nine chapters, the book narrates, studies, and comments on the most important historical and legal events of the past two hundred years; it explains the antecedents and some of the events that have influenced the claim, including the 1850 Treaty of Status Quo, by which Venezuela and the United Kingdom undertook to maintain the border situation as it existed at that time, avoiding the occupation of the territory in question; the 1897 Treaty of Washington; the terrible and absolutely null and void Paris Award of 1899; the 1966 Geneva Agreement; and the 1970 Port of Spain Protocol.

     It contains a dense study of the International Court of Justice, its legal system, both the substantive side and the rules governing the procedural aspects that have already taken place in this judicial process and those that are yet to come, including the arguments of each of the parties and the compelling evidence that Venezuela has to prove the nullity of the Paris Award of 1899.

     Another way of reading the book, in Chapter X, is through the one hundred characters who, for better or worse, have been the protagonists of what has happened not only in the past two hundred years, but also since 1493, when Pope Alexander VI signed the Minor Bull Inter Caetera, which divided the territories of South America between Spain and Portugal.

     Everything related to this claim can also be seen in chronological order. Chapter XI deals with the events of the 120 most relevant dates, beginning in 1493 with the aforementioned Minor Bull Inter Caetera by Pope Alexander VI, considered to be the first document to establish legal title to the disputed territories, and 1494, when the Treaty of Tordesillas established the sovereignty of Spain and Portugal over the American continent.

     The book is full of documents, quotations from eminent historians and jurists, letters, maps, statements and records which will astonish readers when they realise that both the arbitration and the Paris Award of 1899 were an immense fraud that dispossessed Venezuela of the territory west of the Essequibo River, which had always rightfully belonged to the country. Chapter XII brings together all the documents that support the claims made in this study.

     In the foreword to the work, the renowned expert Dr. Héctor Faúndez Ledesma states that "this is the most complete work written on the subject to date...". The foreword also states that "although the main subject of this work is the legal dispute between the parties, Dr Rafael Badell's presentation is based on his historical knowledge and the political and other considerations that have influenced the development of this territorial dispute at every stage".