2023-12-06 20:01:00
(CNN Spanish) — The dispute between Venezuela and Guyana over the Essequibo area not only reopened a political and territorial conflict that dates back to 1899, but also brought back to the table the difficulties that exist in distinguishing between place names with similar spellings, such as Guyana and Guyana. .
Are they interchangeable? What is meant by one and the other? According to the RAE, this confusion is due to the fact that, historically, the forms Guyana and Guayana have alternated in the naming of this region. Here, some explanations regarding the area that covers northern South America, on the North Atlantic.
Guiana
Guiana, also known as the Guyanese massif or shield, is a geographic region located in northeastern South America encompassing Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname and some areas of Venezuela and Brazil. In English it is written “Guiana”, in French “Guyane”, in Dutch “Guyana”, and in Portuguese “Guiana” Indigenous communities inhabited Guiana before European colonization, but little is known regarding them except that they are responsible of the origin of the name guiana (“land of water” or “land of many waters”).
The Guyana region.
Guyana
Guyana It is the country that was previously known as British Guiana, and that today maintains a dispute with Venezuela over the Essequibo. It changed its name upon its independence, in 1966, when it was renamed the Republic of Guyana, and, since 1970, it adopted the name of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. Currently, it is a member of Unasur, Celac and associate member of Mercosur.
French Guiana
It is a French overseas department, located in South America. Fundeú recommends the use of “francoguayanés” to refer to its inhabitants or anything related to this place, written in a single word and without an intermediate hyphen.
Levasseur map of French Guiana, Miquelon, Newfoundland and Saint Martin (Universal Images Group via Getty Images Images)
Surinam
Suriname, finally, is what the former Dutch Guiana is currently known as. According to the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts, the use Suriname, in Spanish, is more appropriate than Suriname, which is its Dutch form.
Guayana Drought
This is the territory in dispute between Guyana and Venezuela, which covers two thirds of the territory of Guyana. The region is disputed due to the large amount of mineral resources. There is a large presence of bauxite, gold, diamonds and manganese there, according to the Government of Venezuelaand “it is suspected,” says Caracas, that there are “important reserves of uranium, oil and natural gas.”
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