Basking in the Caribbean sun, Venezuela is by far the richest nation in Latin America. Cosmopolitan Caracas sprouts skyscrapers like banana plants, boasts some of the worst traffic snarls and best restaurants this side of Paris, lures fun-seeking tourists from the cruise ships and profit-seeking investors from the world over. The fuel of Venezuela's economy is the country's fabled pool of oil, greater than that of any other nation except the U.S. and Russia. The black gold that foreign companies pump from beneath the muddy floor of Lake Maracaibo enriches the Venezuelan government by $1.3 billion yearly, or about...
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