The Arab Spring , which was a series of pro-democracy anti-government uprisings over a decade ago that swept across several largely Islamic states, triggered a substantial regional conflict that ultimately impacted global oil production. Those events left a legacy of civil war in OPEC member Libya , Syria, and Yemen. There are emerging fears of similar developments occurring in Latin America, with many countries in the region rocked by widespread anti-government protests since 2019. Colombia, Latin America’s fourth-largest oil producer, and economy, recently became the epicenter of broad anti-government dissent with the Andean nation rocked by nationwide protests for over two months. Decades of chronic socio-economic inequality, violence, lawlessness, corruption, and suppression of civil society created a tinderbox that the slightest spark could ignite. Those politically flammable conditions were amplified by the Trump administration’s decision to abdicate regional leadership and take an inflammatory tone toward Latin America. The COVID-19 […]