Money Morning’s Martin Hutchinson is generally a cynic when it comes to investing in Latin America. Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia have all disappointed. There are two exceptions: Brazil and Colombia. Martin says the Columbia’s long-term record is the best in the region. Here he recommends how to invest in this high-growth economy…

Oil’s recent wild ride has some market experts questioning which way black gold is headed in the weeks, months, and even years ahead.

Is Mexico’s oil industry on the way out? Is there still money to be made from it? Dave Gonigam thinks there is. But the country will need a lot of outside investment to find its untapped oil.

We know that much of the world’s oil is closer toward depletion than toward abundance. One of the many reasons for this occurred in Mexico in the 1970’s. Byron King tells us the story of how a government run monopoly may have squandered what could have been a great oil resource for many decades.

Out in the field, the industry players are doing real work.

With oil prices climbing to higher than $133, to what extent does Mexico benefit from this? Is it taking advantage of this special time?

Rotten, no-good Members-of-Congress. In America, the Senators haul oil executives in front of Congress to insult and belittle them.

Mexico is the seventh-largest oil producer in the world. Petroleos Mexicanos, known as Pemex, is the country’s state-owned oil company.

Pemex pumps out more oil each year than Exxon Mobil. It pays for 40% of Mexico’s federal spending. And thanks to lack of investment, high taxes, corruption, anti-competition laws, Pemex is headed for collapse.

The bottom line, says Justice Litle in Taipan Daily, is that Mexico’s oil fields are running dry.

For 16 days, they blockaded the halls of congress. For 16 days, they chanted in the streets. Until finally, victory was theirs… the bill was struck down, the enemy bested.

Is the U.S. Fed done cutting rates? The commodities market seems to think so. Gold, platinum, palladium and silver all fell by the end of New York trading. Even oil was off its all-time highs though still above US$115.