McNair Paper Number 54, Chapter 4, October 1996

Although turbulence and transformations are precipitating changes in many areas, some security issues from the previous era have retained their salience. One issue with continued salience is territorial disputes, one where the dynamics have been changed pertains to drugs. Territorial disputes and drugs are, however, not the only items on the region's security agenda; they are among the most critical ones. (Note 1)

The outbreak of hostilities between Peru and Ecuador on February 26, 1995, not only threatened to shatter "the Spirit of Miami" 6 weeks after its creation, but it provided sobering testimony of the continued salience of territorial and border disputes in the Americas. Moreover, while there had been an accentuation of peace initiatives in the hemisphere even before the Summit of the Americas, among the collateral consequences of the Peru-Ecuador conflict has been a jolting of memories about the number of similar disputes in existence and a rekindling of nationalist sentiments about the prosecution of claims.

In the Guyana-Venezuela case, for instance, the aftermath of the Peru-Ecuador war led to apprehension in Guyana over troubling signals coming from Venezuela. In relation to its Guyana claim, which is for two-thirds of the country, Venezuela's Foreign Minister, Miguel Burelli Rivas, visited Guyana March 2-3, 1995, to ask for priority attention to be given to the issue. More troubling, though, he called on President Cheddie Jagan of Guyana to have "a proposal to be pursued in practical terms" ready for when Jagan meets Rafael Caldera during fall 1995. Guyana flatly refused the diplomatic arm twisting. (Note 2) As a result, Venezuela suspended plans for a Jagan-Caldera summit, although the two leaders met briefly later, on October 8, 1995, while Jagan was in transit in Venezuela, on his way to the Non-Aligned Summit in Colombia.

Not only have the global transformations not reduced the salience of the Guyana-Venezuela dispute, but they have also left other significant disputes in tact. As figure 2 shows, Suriname also has a territorial claim against Guyana for 15, 000 square kilometers of territory. As noted above, the Guatemala-Belize dispute, involving the claim by the former to the entire territory of the latter, is not settled, although Guatemala recognized Belizean sovereignty in 1991 and its posture has changed significantly since then. However, these territorial disputes are not the only ones in the Caribbean Basin. Others involve Venezuela and Colombia, Colombia and Nicaragua, Suriname and France (over French Guiana), El Salvador and Nicaragua, and Honduras and Nicaragua. It is useful to note, however, that while structural and operational post-Cold War changes might not have affected the salience of territorial disputes, they have helped to create an environment where peace and reconciliation are emphasized, and this environment itself can make a difference in approaches to resolving territorial and other disputes.