evidence: The government of Guyana, under pressure from neighboring Brazil and a Caribbean trading bloc, agreed Sunday to join bilateral talks with Venezuela over an escalating territorial dispute. The century-old dispute between the two South American nations recently reignited with the discovery of masses of oil in Guyana. The government of Nicolás Maduro, through a referendum last week, has claimed sovereignty over the Essequibo territory, which accounts for two-thirds of Guyana and lies near big offshore oil deposits. [...] In 2015, major oil deposits were first discovered off Essequibo’s shore by an ExxonMobil-led consortium, piquing the interest of Venezuela, whose commitment to pursuing the territorial claim has fluctuated over the years. Oil operations generate some $1 billion a year for Guyana, an impoverished country of nearly 800,000 people that saw its economy expand by nearly 60% in the first half of this year.