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Guyana Relations with Suriname
Guyana's relations with Suriname have at times been tense.
Suriname has a territorial claim to a triangle of a land between
the New and Courantyne rivers in southeast Guyana. In 1969 Suriname
sent troops into the disputed territory. They were quickly repelled
by the Guyanese army. Although Suriname made no further attempts to
take the territory by force, two issues continued to trouble
relations
(see Guyana-Suriname Dispute
, ch. 5). The first was the
forced repatriation of Guyanese living in Suriname. When Suriname's
economic decline began in 1980, Surinamese leader Colonel Desi
Bouterse blamed Guyanese immigrants, many of whom were successful
rice farmers. The second issue was the matter of fishing rights in
the disputed territory. Both countries have periodically detained
each other's fishermen and confiscated fishing boats on the
Courantyne River.
Data as of January 1992
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