Political Report #1071, The Secret Agenda Behind the Venezuela-Guyana Conflict by Eva Golinger, Guest Scholar for COHA

It all began in 1835 when the British Empire sent a German-born naturalist and explorer to conduct geographical research in the South American territory it had colonized and named British Guiana. In the course of his explorations, a map was drawn that well-exceeded the original western boundary first occupied by the Dutch and later passed to British control. Sparking the interest of the Empire’s desire to expand its borders into the area west of the Essequibo River that was known to be rich in gold, the British government commissioned the explorer to survey their territorial boundaries. What became known as the “Schomburgk Line,” named after the explorer, Robert Hermann Schomburgk, acquired a large portion of Venezuelan land, and provoked the beginning of a territorial confrontation that has remained unresolved to this day.