Those events are weighing heavily on an already badly damaged economy and Colombia’s vital petroleum industry, where investment, oil production, and drilling activity is well below pre-pandemic levels. That underscores the significant destabilizing effect the political, economic, and humanitarian crises triggered by Venezuela’s near-collapse are having on its immediate neighbors and northern South America as a whole. The situation is so severe international thinktank the Council on Foreign Relations ranked Venezuela as one of the top conflict risks to watch in 2021. Those factors underscore the urgency with which the crisis in Venezuela needs to be resolved to substantially reduce instability in an economically shattered and highly unstable post-pandemic Latin America. By Matthew Smith. FullText-> Oilprice