In a hard-fought campaign Democrat Joe Biden won the November 2020 U.S. presidential race beating incumbent Donald Trump. There were considerable fears in the run-up to the election that a Biden victory would put a damper on oil prices but, along with the boost given by news of a COVID-19 vaccine, the opposite has occurred. This has been a boon for many South American countries where petroleum production is an important economic driver. Biden’s ascension to the top job marks an end to the hardline policy taken by the Trump White House toward Venezuela and its attempts to oust autocratic socialist leader Nicolás Maduro. Trump’s aggressive sanctions, which cut Venezuela off from global energy and capital markets as well as the veiled threat of military intervention appear to have failed. Essentially, that policy forced Maduro to turn initially to China, then Russia and finally Iran for assistance to prop-up […]