- By Rachelle Krygier & Vanessa Buschschlüter
- BBC Monitoring & BBC News
Image source, Getty Images
Both Venezuela and Guyana lay claim to the Essequibo region
Venezuelans are voting in a referendum on Sunday which has ratcheted up the tension between the South American country and its neighbour, Guyana.
The Venezuelan government has called the referendum to measure popular support for its historical claim to a contested oil-rich swathe of jungle currently administered by Guyana.
The 159,500-sq-km (61,600-square-mile) region is known as Essequibo and makes up two thirds of the total of the land currently controlled by Guyana. It is home to 125,000 of Guyana’s 800,000 citizens.
The dispute over the area has been rumbling on for more than a century.
In 1899, an international arbitral tribunal awarded the area to Britain, which at the time was the colonial power ruling over Guyana, or British Guiana, as it was then known.
Guyana: Key facts
- Capital: Georgetown
- Area: 214,970 sq km
- Population: 795,400
- Languages: English, Guyanese Creole, plus others)
- President: Irfaan Ali
But this ruling has been dismissed as unfair by successive Venezuelan governments over the past 60 years.
In 1966, Britain and Venezuela reached an agreement – known as the Geneva Agreement – to establish a commission made up of representatives of Guyana, which became independent from Britain that same year, and Venezuela to revisit the territorial dispute.
But even though almost six decades…
