For decades during the Cold War, Latin America was a focal point of conflict between the two superpowers, the U.S. and Soviet Union. While the U.S. emerged victorious after the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Putin’s Russia could achieve what the Soviet Union couldn’t for four decades, gain an upper hand in the silent war for Latin America. A key development supporting Moscow’s ambitions in Latin America is Venezuela’s economic collapse and the emergence of one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history. Venezuela, which holds the world’s largest oil reserves, was once Latin America’s richest and most stable democracies . Its thriving cosmopolitan capital Caracas has long been considered the cultural jewel of South America. Venezuela’s vast oil wealth, which has been squandered over the last two decades, provided a ready source of capital that allowed it to become South America’s most developed nation. After decades of […]