Collective Defense in the Western Hemisphere

Venezuela, Guyana, and the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance

On Sunday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro triumphantly declared victory in the country’s referendum calling for the annexation of Essequibo in neighboring Guyana. President Maduro didn’t bother asking what the Guyanese think about the issue, however.

Essequibo comprises approximately two thirds of Guyana’s land area, and is home to 120,000 Guyanese. Recent geological surveys have discovered oil and gas deposits in both Essequibo and offshore. Speculation about a potential war in South America is rampant and both Brazil and the United States have moved military assets closer to the region. Despite near unanimous condemnations of Venezuelan threats and territorial designs, there’s been shockingly little discussion of American States’ defense obligations.

The public is broadly aware of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Article 5; that an attack on one is an attack on all. However, the often overlooked Organization of American States (OAS) has a nearly identical collective defense clause as part of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance:

ARTICLE 3

The High Contracting Parties agree that an armed attack by any State against an American State shall be considered as an attack against all the American States and, consequently, each one of the said Contracting Parties undertakes to assist in meeting the attack in the exercise of the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations.  

This Cold War era collective defense clause was clearly written with an eye to keeping external powers out of the Western Hemisphere and yet, like NATO’s article 5, the collective defense provisions apply American states attacking another as well. Furthermore, the United States and Venezuela are both signatories to this treaty (Venezuela ratified the treaty in 2019) and it is unlikely to be lost on Venezuelan legal scholars (who haven’t yet fled the country) that the United States would have legal recourse to defend Guyana with force.

It’s doubtful President Maduro will be foolish enough to embark upon a revanchist military adventure with his country’s economy in free-fall and society in shambles. But nonetheless, whether it be Idi Amin or Saddam Hussein, when tin-pot dictators announce their designs on neighboring territories, it's important to take their words seriously. All American States, but especially the United States, should remind Mr. Maduro of our legal obligation to defend all Americans, even those in the remote corners of Essequibo.