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A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening in the world to help you better understand it.***Last week, voters in Venezuela backed a referendum to assume control of an oil-rich region in neighboring Guyana. The 61,600-square-mile region, known as Essequibo, comprises over two-thirds of the area currently controlled by Guyana, but is the subject of historical dispute: Venezuela has long maintained that the region was wrongly granted to Britain, then the colonial power that controlled Guyana, in 1899. Critics of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro say that the referendum, which Venezuelan officials say 95 percent of voters backed, is an attempt to stir up nationalist sentiment and distract from calls for elections, but President Maduro has deemed the results an “overwhelming victory.” We asked four experts to tell us more about the referendum, the dispute over the region, and what might happen next. Read more below. Fabiana Perera Adjunct Assistant Professor Center for Security Studies Georgetown UniversityThe referendum on the annexation of Guyana was held less than two months after the opposition to the regime of Nicolás Maduro achieved an electoral success not seen since 2015, when it won the majority of seats in the legislature. In October, the opposition mobilized the electorate and managed to coalesce their support around a single candidate for the 2024 presidential election. The Dec. 3 referendum was announced days before the opposition’s primary elections and should be seen as the regime’s test of its own electorate. The results were mixed: low turnout but overwhelming support for the government’s initiative to “create the [Venezuelan] state of Guayana Esequiba.” Maduro turned the electoral results into a mandate to introduce measures to include