Caracas: Guyana and Venezuela’s foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Brazil on Thursday to discuss the simmering border tension over a disputed oil-rich territory.
With both parties holding fast, commentators do not expect a significant breakthrough to address the source of the dispute: Venezuela’s claim to the Essequibo region, which accounts for roughly two-thirds of Guyanese territory.
Thursday’s meeting was convened after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his Guyanese counterpart Irfaan Ali ruled out using force during a crisis summit in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines last month.
Guyana has managed Essequibo for more than a century, and the territory is the subject of border dispute before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, which Venezuela opposes.
Caracas has long claimed authority over the region, which is home to 125,000 of Guyana’s 800,000 citizens.
The squabble resurfaced in 2015 after US energy firm ExxonMobil discovered massive crude reserves in Essequibo, and it reached a fever pitch last year when Georgetown began auctioning off oil concessions in the region.
Maduro’s government then held a contentious, non-binding vote that overwhelmingly backed the establishment of a Venezuelan province in Essequibo, raising concerns about a military war.
