Venezuelan textbooks contain maps of the region in which students learn to quickly point out their homeland as well as neighboring Colombia, Brazil and Guyana. But the map differs greatly from those in many other sources. It shows a much larger Venezuela, one that includes a big chunk of Guyana. 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, though the legal and practical implications of the vote are questionable. International arbitrators set the border in 1899, and an international court has agreed to hear Guyana's appeal that it affirm the boundary.
