On 27 May Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro issued a decree establishing four ‘operational integral defence maritime and insular defence zones’ (Zodimains in the Spanish acronym). The easternmost of these cover the seas off the states of Sucre and Delta Amacuro and what figures in Venezuelan maps as the ‘Reclamation Zone’ ― the territory administered by Guyana which Venezuela considers its own. This last part would leave Guyana without its maritime exclusive economic zone, in which Mobil recently announced that it had found oil. The westernmost Zodimain encroaches upon the Gulf of Venezuela, or Coquivacoa, as it is called in Colombia, which disputes sovereignty with Venezuela over oil-bearing areas and fisheries.End of preview - This article contains approximately 963 words.
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