evidence: Guyanese president, Irfaan Ali, appealed to Washington and to the UN after the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, announced that he had taken steps to formalise the incorporation of Essequibo – an oil-rich 160,000sq km region of neighbouring Guyana – as part of Venezuela. [...] Venezuela’s territorial dispute with neighbouring Guyana is a longstanding one. It is arguably made worse by the news that there might be oil and gas potential in Essequibo – not just on land but also under the seabed. [...] Successive Venezuelan governments and dictatorial regimes have disputed the positioning of the international boundary. They have argued that the territory, in and around the Essequibo River, is not Guyanese.