There has long been an association between petroleum production, political repression, poor governance, and increased internal conflict. For strife-torn oil-dependent Colombia, which is claimed to be Latin America’s longest-running democracy, this is no different. Like South American neighbors Venezuela, Brazil, and Ecuador, black gold became an important economic motor for Colombia with the country’s addiction to petroleum starting in the mid-1980s when it became a net oil exporter. The Andean nation’s decades-long low-intensity multi-faceted asymmetric civil conflict, which again escalated during the mid-1990s, did little to slow Colombia’s burgeoning oil industry and economy. Even the Andean country’s scant-proven oil reserves, which are significantly lower than its petroleum-producing neighbors, did not prevent Colombia from becoming a leading Latin American oil producer. By 1999, Colombia’s oil production peaked at a record 816,000 barrels of crude oil per day which was only surpassed over a decade later during the last global oil […]