Essequibo

The approximately 1000 km long Essequibo River runs through the state of Guyana in South America from south to north. Until today, the territory west of the Essequibo is claimed by Venezuela. This is 2/3 of Guyana's current territory. The conflict goes back a long way. Already in the 18th century there were conflicting opinions between the Dutch and the Spanish as to who owned the territory that was under Dutch occupation. In 1814, the Dutch ceded the Essequibo region, among others, to Great Britain without an explicit boundary being established. In 1822, Greater Colombia (and later Venezuela) began claiming the territory west of the Essequibo.

In 1895, mediation by the United States resulted in arbitration, which settled the conflict largely in British Guyana's favor in 1899. Venezuela resisted this decision from the beginning and over the decades tried to persuade the British not to recognize the decision, since the Venezuelan side suspected that the decision had been influenced by the British. In 1945, recognition of the decision was then officially revoked by Venezuela at the first session of the United Nations.

From 1962 on, Venezuela again became diplomatically active, which led to the "Geneva Agreement" in 1966, shortly before Guyana's independence, in which Venezuela, Great Britain and British Guyana stipulated that the conflict should be resolved under certain rules. However, this was never implemented as it was, as independent Guyana and Venezuela interpreted the treaty differently. Under the Chavez government (1999-2013), Venezuela's claims were on hold. Since 2015, the conflict has intensified again due to oil drilling in the maritime area belonging to the disputed territory. Since 2018, there has been an initiative by the International Court of Justice, initiated by Guyana, to settle the dispute with an arbitral award. This is still underway, however Venezuela has already let it be known that it would not consider the arbitration award binding in case of doubt.

Venezuela made its claim visible on stamps as early as 1896. In between, however, there are Venezuelan stamps showing Guyana in its present borders. From the 1970s, however, Venezuela again printed the corresponding stamps with the claim. Guyana, for its part, overprinted its own stamp issues in the 1970s in part with "Essequibo is ours" .