Guyana Asks Court To Stop Venezuela's Referendum On Oil-Rich Province

Guyana has reached out to the International Court of Justice and asked it to cancel a referendum planned in Venezuela calling for voters to decide whether Caracas should annex the Essequibo region, which contains considerable oil resources. The dispute between Venezuela and Guyana regarding Essequibo is a long-running one, stemming from an arbitration decision from 1899, which gave control over Essequibo to the then-British colony Guyana. Venezuela has not accepted the arbitration and recently moved to reinforce its claim over the territory with…