Caribbean and Central American governments are trying to shake off once-vaunted refining ties with Venezuela's finan- cially struggling state-run PdV, but they face an uphill battle to win over alternative investors. Under late former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, PdV forged downstream partnerships across the region, promising to plow in petrodollars to upgrade and build refineries as part of a campaign of oil diplomacy. Even before oil prices started tumbling in mid-2014, PdV had followed through with none of the overseas projects, even as a lack of investment eroded its own operational refining capacity at home.
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