Borders and ballots: Why Essequibo is controversial in Venezuela’s election | Elections News

However, the case has been slowly winding its way through the international court since 2018. And the Maduro government views the UN body as a tool of foreign interference, particularly for his rivals in the US.

Maduro’s supporters point to the fact that, in 2015, the US oil giant ExxonMobil discovered vast offshore fields near Essequibo. The company has continued to explore the contested waters in search of more oil and gas deposits.

For Rivas, the 2015 discovery “rang alarm bells”,…