El ejercicio de la soberanía venezolana en aguas del mar de las Antillas durante el siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX

Resum

The development of this dissertation is based on a research project on the history of Venezuelan maritime sovereignty in the southwest of the Caribbean Sea, also called the Antilles Sea, whose geographical area extends East-West from the Los Testigos archipelago to the east of Margarita Island in the northeastern part of Venezuelan continental territory, up to the Los Monjes archipelago facing the Gulf of Venezuela. In a North-South direction, it is located between the Aves Island, to the west of the French island of Guadeloupe, and the Venezuelan continental territory. Furthermore, these marine spaces include the Atlantic Area, which goes from Punta de Peñas (State of Sucre), up to Punta de Playa (State Delta Amacuro), on the border with the Republic of Guyana. The general objective is to analyze from a geopolitical and geostrategic perspective the effective exercise of Venezuelan sovereignty on its maritime waters between 1830 and 1903, the time during which the Republic acquired a definitively independent political life, following its separation from the old Republic of Colombia; and the period in which its national coasts were blocked by Germany, Great Britain, and Italy (1902¿1903). The study starts off on the premise that Venezuela¿as an independent State after its separation from the Republic of Colombia¿continued to perform surveillance and jurisdiction of the maritime spaces adjacent to its continental and insular territory in the Sea of the Antilles which were part of the Government of the Province of Venezuela since their discovery and colonization, with the resulting amendments from agreements and arbitral awards, without nullity, approved by the legitimate national authorities, that since then have determined the course of external actions and defense of sovereignty of the Venezuelan State. Carry out an analysis from the geopolitical and geostrategic standpoint of Venezuela¿s interest in controlling and monitoring its maritime spaces to guarantee its political and economic stability as an independent nation. In order to address our general objective, we start off from a second premise: the existing interconnection among the various historic events that took place in the political, economic, and social evolution of the country. During the research process it was deemed important to include the review of the activities carried out by major European powers since the beginning of the Republic in 1830 up to the dawn of the following century, which for different reasons and on different occasions used the Antilles Sea to approach and penetrate Venezuelan continental and insular territory. Theoretical Framework The analysis of some of the principal terms or concepts related to the State, law, political power, and sovereignty used in this paper, as well as the description of the physical area under review and the political importance of such geographical space when linked with the theoretical scope of the former, are essential in determining up to what point and under what conditions did Venezuela actually enforced its maritime jurisdiction. Thus, it was deemed necessary to incorporate certain historical background linked to the configuration and transformation process of the territorial unit that starting in 1830 would become the Republic of Venezuela. All this implied a review of various legal and political concepts that until then regulated relations with other countries. Based on these considerations, we reviewed notions such as sovereignty and geopolitics, as well as those related to the control of national maritime spaces during the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century: the geographical position of the country and its political relation with terrestrial borders and maritime limits; the territorial sea and the adjacent seas, their extension and legal nature; and High Seas, among others. The study of these factors linked to the historical evolution of the country has made it possible to include the impact they had in the exercise of sovereignty on certain maritime and business activities carried out by some public or private entities, under the protection or without the knowledge of the institutions of the State. The contributions of the theory of differentiated periods developed by the French historian of the Annales school, Fernand Braudel (1902-1985), and the studies carried out both by this French author and his fellow countryman Jean Bodin (1529/30-1596), concerning the influence of the geographical environment on the political, economic, and social events of the nations of the world, encouraged the conceptualization of this paper. The development of the political history of nations and their relation with the geographical environment, concatenated in long periods of time, makes it possible for us to explain up to what point the State actually exercised its jurisdictional rights on its terrestrial and maritime spaces, in defense of the sovereignty and physical integrity of the nation. We study the geographical environment and the concept of sovereignty with regard to the exercise of political power by the State: the geopolitical considerations in the historical evolution of Venezuela and the notion of sovereignty, its background, and subsequent development within the historical and political framework of Europe at the beginning of the Modern Age; as well as the emergence and evolution of international law and its relation with the new legal-political meanings of sovereignty. We offer the historical reference framework that leads to the review the immediate background that led to the creation of the Republic of Venezuela, thereafter incorporated into that great political-administrative entity that was the former Republic of Colombia, whose legal and political structures would have impacts of significant importance for the Republic created in 1830. Some of the most important events that took place prior and during the independence process are highlighted since they report the significance that the maritime and oceanic coast would have for the political, economic, and commercial future of the emerging Republic following the disintegration of the Great Colombia. Afterwards we show the first cases of international responsibility faced by the Venezuelan State resulting from the control and surveillance of its territorial maritime spaces, as well as the various laws and decrees related to the matter that led to a large number of judicial claims against the central government, in the majority of the cases filed by subjects or foreign companies with economic and commercial interests in the country. We also review the surveillance and control actions imposed by the National Government on its jurisdictional waters from the decade of the 60s of the 19th century to counteract contraband activities that caused great harm to the national treasury, as well as to restrain the destabilizing actions of dissenting groups, that from the neighboring islands of Curaçao and Trinidad attempted to overthrow the government in power. The chapter ends with the political reorganization of the Venezuelan insular territory initiated by President Antonio Guzmán Blanco and the controversy with Great Britain regarding the sovereignty of the Patos Island. They provide an overview of the public policies developed by the State at the end of the 19th century to defend its national maritime spaces. Finally, we finished with the analysis of the most outstanding aspects of the naval blockade to the national coasts imposed by Germany, Great Britain, and Italy at the end of 1902 and beginning of 1903. These events would give rise to a large number of reactions in the international sphere, whose legal consequences led to the emergence of the so-called Drago Doctrine, formulated by Luis María Drago, minister of Foreign Affairs of the Argentine Republic, which established, in general terms, that no foreign State could use force against an American nation with a view to collecting a financial debt. Its tenets represented a milestone in the evolution of the American Public International Law and had enormous influence on the general legal doctrine. Conclusions The overall assessment of the period studied lead us to conclude that since the dissolution of the Great Colombia, the political, economic, and social fate of Venezuela was closely conditioned by the civil wars and military insurrections that did not cease to arise throughout the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The geographical position of the country and its relation to the maritime spaces¿of vital importance to the world economy and trade¿determined the international actions of the State. The defense of Venezuelan jurisdiction rights on the waters adjacent to the continental and insular territory in the Antilles Sea, was an indispensable instrument in the struggle for the political existence of the Republic itself and its international recognition as an independent nation. The threats on the use of force and the effective fulfillment of the same did not represent any obstacle for the governments in power to make use of judicial and legal resources that allowed them to reaffirm Venezuelan sovereign rights on the maritime and fluvial waters of the Republic¿through the promulgation of laws and decrees as well as treaties signed with foreign nations¿in the years between 1830 and 1903. At times when the defensive capacity of the State lacked the necessary forces to respond militarily and alleviate foreign armed aggressions, diplomatic negotiations and the power of the laws and the international treaties were the primary mechanisms that imposed the conditions for the of the sovereignty and integrity of the maritime and terrestrial territory of the Republic.