Defensive actions have been intensified in Brazil as it monitors the border situation between Guyana and Venezuela.

This is according to a report from Reuters which quotes a statement from the Brazilian Ministry of Defense.

Venezuela will host a referendum in December in which it will raise the question of creating a new state including land of the Essequibo region which constitutes over two-thirds of Guyana’s land mass.

Reuters says Venezuela’s claims on the region been the source of a long-running territorial dispute and were reignited after Guyana’s discovery of oil and gas near the maritime border.

Guyana has asked the International Court of Justice to confirm the legal validity and binding effect of the 1899 Arbitral Award.

That award established the border between Venezuela and the then British Guiana.

The court is expected to rule on Friday.