Guyana and Venezuela leaders to meet face-to-face as region pushes to defuse territorial dispute

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — The leaders of Guyana and Venezuela are scheduled to meet face-to-face as regional partners urgently seek to defuse a long-standing territorial dispute that has escalated after Venezuelans voted in a referendum to claim two-thirds of their small neighbor. Guyana’s president, Irfaan Ali, and Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, are expected to meet Thursday at the main international airport on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent. Regional leaders, including the prime ministers of Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, are scheduled to attend. The meeting is aimed at easing tensions that have flared over a vast border region rich in oil and minerals known as Essequibo, which represents much of Guyana;s territory but that Venezuela claims as its own.