GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AFP) — Less than a month after Venezuela unilaterally redrew its maritime boundary, neighboring Guyana announced Wednesday it will ask the United Nations to legally settle Latin America’s biggest territorial dispute.

Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge told AFP that Guyana would call directly on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to invoke provisions of the Geneva Agreement for a legally binding settlement.

Venezuela has long claimed Guyana’s Essequibo region, which comprises two-thirds of Guyana’s 215,000 square kilometers (83,000 square miles).

Guyana, a former British colony, maintains that the two countries’ land boundary was settled in 1899 by a court of arbitration, set up after a crisis that prompted the United States to intervene in favour of Venezuela against Britain, asserting the Monroe Doctrine.

Venezuela has never recognised the line, and the dispute has simmered ever since, extending in recent years to maritime rights off the disputed area.

In fact, Venezuela claims the territory stretching from its eastern frontier all the way to the Essequibo River, and the maritime rights off that area.

If Caracas prevails, it would end up taking more than one half of mineral-rich and sparsely populated Guyana territory.

Venezuela issued what Greenidge called a “baseless and shameless” decree on May 26, claiming maritime rights precisely where Guyana already gave American oil-giant ExxonMobil a prospecting contract.

Greenidge said Guyana now had little option but to find a lasting settlement to a controversy that has seen Venezuela block Guyana’s attempt to explore for oil offshore and onshore, mine gold and build hydropower stations.

In an address to parliament after recent polls, President David Granger promised his administration would “do everything within its power to secure our borders”.

As of Wednesday, ExxonMobil’s exploration oil rig, Deepwater Champion, continues to work on the concession located about 120 miles offshore Guyana.

ExxonMobil recently said it had found a “significant” reserve of high-quality crude oil.