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Colombia The Golfo de Venezuela and Islas Los Monjes
The territorial dispute with neighboring
Venezuela--Colombia's
traditional rival--appeared to pose a greater possibility
for armed
conflict than the claims to the island chain off the
Nicaraguan
coast. During the late 1980s, this dispute with Venezuela
was
exacerbated by problems over other issues related to the
countries'
shared border. As a result, the prospects for cooperation
in
resolving the territorial claims were conditioned by the
element of
national prestige that was introduced into nearly all
bilateral
contacts. Other issues that heightened nationalistic
concerns
included armed clashes following incursions of
Colombian-based drug
traffickers and guerrillas into Venezuelan territory, as
well as
reports of civilian casualties caused by Venezuelan troops
that
entered Colombian territory in hot pursuit. In addition,
an almost
continuous influx of undocumented Colombian migrants into
Venezuela
in search of work had begun during the 1970s and continued
into the
late 1980s. This influx of migrant workers also
contributed to
heightened tensions between the two countries.
The territorial dispute centered on control over the
entrance
to the Golfo de Venezuela. The key to establishing this
control was
ownership of the Islas Los Monjes, a chain of three tiny
islands
lying at the gulf's northern mouth. At stake in the
dispute was the
control over a substantial amount of maritime territory in
the
Caribbean that extended into the gulf, an area popularly
referred
to by Colombians as the Golfo de Coquibacoa. By gaining
recognition
of its claim to the islands, which were said to be all but
submerged at high tide, Colombia could expand national
territory
into the Caribbean by declaring the extension of its
200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone around the
islands. It
would also be able to claim a portion of the waters of the
gulf--located next to Venezuela's oil-rich Lago de
Maracaibo--which, according to estimates of possible
reserves,
might contain as much as 10 billion barrels of oil.
Under an 1842 boundary agreement known as the
Pombo-Romero
Treaty, Venezuela had ceded its claim to the Guajira
Peninsula.
Conflicting boundary claims between the two nations
remained,
however, and the issue became more complex. In 1891 King
Alfonso
XII of Spain, who had been asked to arbitrate, awarded
some
portions of the disputed territory to Colombia and others
to
Venezuela. The Spanish arbitration did not, however,
delineate the
actual boundaries along the entirety of the shared
frontier. The
1941 Treaty on Border Demarcation and Navigation of Common
Rivers
(also known as the Santos-López Contreras Treaty)
presumably
settled the dispute by delineating with geographic
precision the
boundaries along the length of the land border. As a
result, most
of the Guajira Peninsula remained under Colombian control,
but
uncertainty continued regarding the extension of the
maritime
boundary into the gulf.
Following the reestablishment of relative domestic
peace in
Colombia during the 1960s, the dispute over the islands
again
became a national issue. Several unsuccessful rounds of
negotiations were conducted during the 1970s and 1980s. In
August
1987, Colombian warships (including the missile frigate
Caldas) entered disputed waters at the mouth of the
gulf,
Colombian Mirage fighters reportedly conducted overflights
of the
area, and Venezuelan F-16 fighters were moved to a nearby
air base.
Open hostilities appeared imminent. Even after the
withdrawal of
the Colombian vessels by order of President Virgilio Barco
Vargas,
the armed forces of both nations remained on alert in the
border
area. The Venezuelan government maintained that the
vessels'
presence in the gulf for three full days represented an
act of
"intentional provocation" and sent a "strongly worded"
formal
protest to the Colombian president.
Data as of December 1988
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