US Oil Demand Provoking New Wars In Latin America

Perhaps this week you heard news reports about Venezuela bombing a couple of bridges that connected it with Colombia, and have been wondering what all the tension is about.

If so you should run to read this report in UK’s The Independent about America’s role (surprise!) in fomenting tension. (via Forexlive)

As it turns out, Colombia is basically our last surrogate state in Latin and South America.

In the old days, sure, we had our various friendly puppet goverments, and we certainly wouldn’t mind having a few more (see: the brief 2002 Venezuelan coup). But for the most part, that’s over, and for Latin America that’s a much better state of things.

But Colombia — due to the drug war and thorough corruption — remains, and so the US is putting more and more chips on that spot. After all, the US gets about half of its oil from Latin America. We can’t just let the region go on its way.

Business Insider