As British Petroleum’s Gulf of Mexico oil disaster played out in June, a lesser-noticed slick spread simultaneously across 1,000 square kilometers (390 sq miles) of Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo. The cause is believed to have been an underwater oil-pipeline rupture, and the result was ecosystem contamination that killed crabs, fish and other fauna. The Venezuelan spill has spotlighted the sorry state of the many lake-bottom pipelines serving oil platforms in Lake Maracaibo. Critics say it also underscores an ongoing failure by federal authorities to address the problem. “Oil leaks are constant, and the government has no capability to deal with them,” says Gustavo Carrasquel, communications director for Azul Ambientalistas, a Venezuelan environmental group. “The upshot is that the valuable and fragile ecosystems of... [Log in to read more]