The Trail of Diplomacy: The Guyana-Venezuela Border Issue (Volume Two)

This volume, the second of a three-part documentary, continues the history of the Guyana-Venezuela border issue from where Volume One left off. It describes Venezuela s dissatisfaction over the territorial and boundary award issued in 1899 by the international arbitral tribunal, subsequently leading to that country s government unilaterally declaring it in 1962 as being null and void. The volume goes on to examine the evolved political events, including the sporadic Venezuelan infringements of Guyana s territorial integrity and the pursuit of diplomacy by both countries, resulting eventually in 1966 to a formal agreement at Geneva aimed at seeking a practical settlement of the controversy arising from Venezuela s contention of the nullity of the arbitral award. A subsidiary protocol to suspend the search for a settlement was signed in Port of Spain in 1970, but the succeeding twelve-year period was characterized by a succession of bilateral political interplay, resulting in Venezuela s decision to terminate this pact in 1982.