Embattled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Monday upped the ante in a rekindled border dispute with Guyana on Monday and recalled his country's ambassador in Georgetown, the neighboring country's capital.

The Associated Press reported Venezuela and Guyana have long been at odds over an oil-rich territory known as the Essequibo, which a 1899 international tribunal ruling awarded to the then-British colony. For decades, Caracas has objected to that decision, and official maps continue to refer to the area as "in reclamation."

Maduro did not mince words when he attacked Guyanese President David Granger during a speech to his country's National Assembly on June 6, Reuters noted.

"It takes a lot of patience to process, digest and not vomit when one reads and hears the statements against Venezuela ... by the current president," he said. Granger was a "hostage of Exxon Mobil," the socialist leader added.

His reference to the American company is linked to a significant oil discovery Exxon recently made in the Essequibo. After the announcement of the discovery, Venezuela had issued a decree extending its territorial claims farther out into the Atlantic to encompass the area where the natural resources are located.

The U.S. corporation, for its part, told Reuters that it follows host countries' and international law and that border conflicts are a matter for governments to resolve.

Maduro ordered Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez to conduct a full review of bilateral relations with Guyana, even though he affirmed Venezuela's "friendship and sincere respect toward the people" of the neighboring country, El Universal detailed.

"The development of the history of the Essequibo has been a wound in the heart of the homeland for more than two centuries," Maduro said. "Our goal is national peace, our victory is regional peace; once we had controlled the threat, partially dissolved it partially, neutralized it, other (threats to the Essequibo) have been activated."

Meanwhile, on Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon offered to help mediate the centuries-old dispute between the South American neighbors.