Latin American Lowdown

  Note to readers: newly prepared summaries of older stories may sometimes be placed at the top to call attention to them, at least for a time. They also will be placed in chronological order. “Venezuelan Dynasty Balks at Oil Deal,” Wall Street Journal, August 22-23, 2026 A relatively small California oil producer backed by European investors is now positioned to grab some of the first assets made available by Venezuela in a new era for its oil industry, said Kejal Vyas and Collin Eaton of the Wall Street Journal. The small producer, Pacific Coast Energy, has moved more quickly than major companies such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, which are eyeing the market warily two decades after Venezuela nationalized their assets.  But Pacific Coast Energy has run into a complication: “Venezuela’s prominent Cisneros family asserts rightful ownership of some of the same oil fields that Pacific Coast is negotiating to operate,” the Journal reporters write. The family said the int...