The collapse of Venezuela’s oil industry could lead to significant environmental consequences. Oil spills are likely to increase due to a lack of infrastructure investment and maintenance. A key part of resurrecting Venezuela’s petroleum industry is conducting urgently required maintenance and overhauls on severely corroded industry infrastructure including vital pipelines as well as refineries. Venezuela’s profound economic and humanitarian crisis fails to attract the headlines it once did, particularly after the U.S. recognized interim president Juan Gauido’s May 2019 uprising failed. While the autocratic Maduro regime’s actions continue to gain some media attention, it appears that the world’s worst modern economic collapse outside of war is no longer the breaking news it once was. This is despite the humanitarian crisis deepening to the point where nearly all Venezuelans live in poverty and the growing regional threat posed by terrorists as well as other non-state armed groups operating in Venezuela’s […]