Venezuela approved a referendum to take over the neighboring oil-rich Essequibo region controlled by the sovereign nation of Guyana after a vote Sunday, according to election officials. The ...

The Essequibo River flows through Kurupukari crossing in Guyana on November 19, 2023. Venezuela has long claimed Guyana's Essequibo region, a territory larger than Greece and rich in oil and minerals.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is asking the country's state-owned companies to "immediately" begin to explore and exploit the oil, gas and mines in Guyana's Essequibo region, a territory ...

The Essequibo region is sparsely populated, home to an estimated 125,000 people out of Guyana’s total 800,000. It covers about two-thirds of Guyana’s landmass.

A man in Caracas walks by a mural campaigning for a referendum to ask Venezuelans to consider annexing the Guyana-administered region of Essequibo, on November 28, 2023.

Essequibo is home to 125,000 of Guyana's 800,000 citizens. ... Guyana, a former British and Dutch colony, insists the Essequibo frontiers were determined by an arbitration panel in 1899.

Guyanese authorities have requested the United Nations Security Council to review Venezuela's territorial claims over the oil-rich Essequibo region, under the jurisdiction of the former British ...

Large reserves of oil and natural gas in Essequibo were discovered in 2015 by ExxonMobil and are said to amount to around 11 billion barrels of oil, which led Guyana to the highest economic growth ...

Venezuela has laid claim to Essequibo, dating back to the Spanish colonial period and has contested the border set by international arbitrators in 1899, during Guyana's time as a British colony.

Venezuelans on Sunday for the first time elected a governor and other lawmakers for Essequibo, an oil-rich region that Venezuela has laid claim to even though it is widely recognized as being part ...

Venezuelans will vote Sunday in a referendum to decide whether the country should create its own state within a large swath of its oil-rich neighbor Guyana – a move denounced as an annexation by ...