Guyana

UPDATE: COMMENTARY In Guyana, the Trump administration finally offered hemispheric partnership instead of extortion — and rattled China. President Trump just trashed that vibe with a harsh, dubious tariff.

Guyana is revisiting a dark history nearly half a century after U.S. Rev. Jim Jones and more than 900 of his followers died in the country. Now a government-backed tour operator wants to open the former commune to visitors.

Attorney General Anil Nandlall tells The Associated Press that Guyana’s government has reassured neighboring Venezuela there is no plan for the U.S. to establish a military base in the South American country.

Venezuela and Guyana are currently involved in a border dispute over a sparsely populated region the size of Florida with vast oil deposits off its shores.

A century-old territorial dispute is boiling over between neighbors Guyana and Venezuela. It's steeped in patriotism and deepened by the discovery of oil. The Venezuelan government is seizing on the disagreement to boost support ahead of a presidential election.

In a Sunday referendum, Venezuelan voters OK'd their authoritarian regime's proposal to make two-thirds of Guyana a Venezuelan state — but critics call it a diversion ploy.

The 61,600-square-mile territory accounts for two-thirds of Guyana and borders Brazil, which says it has "intensified its defense actions" and boosted its military presence because of the dispute.

Venezuela has long claimed Guyana’s Essequibo region — a territory larger than Greece and rich in oil and minerals. And now President Nicolás Maduro is appealing to Venezuelans' patriotism in summoning voters supposedly to decide the territory’s future in a Dec. 3 referendum.

Caribbean leaders are denouncing U.S. economic sanctions against oil-rich Venezuela and say they’ve been forced to buy costlier petroleum elsewhere.

One of Guyana’s smallest Amerindian villages is waging a monumental battle that could decide the amount of control that thousands of indigenous people have over their land in remote parts of this South American country.

Guyana is poised to become the fourth-largest offshore oil producer in the world, placing it ahead of Qatar, the United States, Mexico and Norway.

The U.N.'s World Court in the Hague has sided with Guyana's request for a ruling on its 124-year-old border dispute with Venezuela — which involves a lot of oil.