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Venezuela Renews Ambitions to Annex Guyana's Essequibo Region

International Tensions Rise as U.S. and Brazil Support Guyana's Sovereignty Amid Venezuela's Territorial Claim

  • Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has renewed his country's ambitions to annex nearly three-quarters of neighboring Guyana, presenting a map on television that showed Guyana’s Esequibo region as under the jurisdiction of Caracas.
  • Maduro's declaration has unsettled Guyana’s leader and attracted stern statements from the United States and Brazil urging Venezuela to refrain from using military force to enforce its territorial claim.
  • Guyanese President Irfaan Ali has appealed to the United States, Brazil and the United Nations for diplomatic and defense support to deter a Venezuelan invasion.
  • Venezuela's interest in the territory piqued in 2015 when ExxonMobil announced it had found oil in commercial quantities off the Essequibo coast.
  • US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed Washington’s position that Guyana has full sovereignty over its Essequibo region, in a call with Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali.
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