For nearly 50 years, Venezuela has claimed almost all territory west of the Essequibo River as its own. In 1899, an international arbitration ruling granted the land to the United Kingdom, from which Guyana subsequently became independent. But in the late 1940s, Venezuela rekindled the dispute; by 1962, it had begun actively seeking to reclaim the territory. ExxonMobil's discovery earlier this year of offshore oil deposits in maritime areas that are not legally defined by any agreement between the two countries further stoked the conflict . Since then, Maduro's government has frequently used the oil discovery and the broader disagreement to boost its own support at home, claiming that the United States and international oil companies are illegally claiming offshore oil resources at Venezuela's expense.