Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has passed a law to create a new Venezuelan state around the oil-rich region of Essequibo in neighbouring Guyana. “The decision taken by the Venezuelan people in the consultative referendum will be fulfilled in all its parts, and with this law we will defend Venezuela on the international stage,” Maduro said on Wednesday. At the beginning of December, Maduro held a controversial referendum in Venezuela in which, according to official figures, 96% of participants voted in favour of the annexation of “Guayana Esequiba” as a Venezuelan federal state. The law wi…