CARACAS, Venezuela — Maps of Venezuela hanging on the walls of schoolrooms and in government offices show a large striped area to the east of the country’s border with Guyana marked “Zone in Reclamation.” For more than a century, Venezuela has claimed that it is the rightful owner of this zone, which consists of about three-quarters of Guyana’s national territory. The longstanding feud has often darkened relations between the two nations.
Now, five Americans on a research ship working under an oil exploration contract with the Guyanese government appear to have become ensnared in this dispute, which also involves clashing claims over territorial waters off Guyana’s coast and the right to drill for oil there.
The Guyanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that a Venezuelan naval vessel, the Yekuana, had obstructed the research ship’s passage in Guyanese waters a day earlier. The Venezuelan ship then began escorting the research ship toward Margarita Island in Venezuela, according to the statement, which said the crew was under arrest.