Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week: Regional oil exporters show resilience amid the Strait of Hormuz crisis, Honduras rethinks its plans to recognize Taiwan, and Argentina advances to the World Cup final.

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week: Regional oil exporters show resilience amid the Strait of Hormuz crisis, Honduras rethinks its plans to recognize Taiwan, and Argentina advances to the World Cup final.

Latin America’s Petroleum Power

Disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz caused by the Iran war have underscored the economic muscle of a handful of Latin American countries that are experiencing oil export booms, including Argentina, Brazil, and Guyana.

The region’s relative geopolitical neutrality and distance from the conflict has made its oil more attractive to global buyers during the crisis, part of a rewiring of energy sales that International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol described in Foreign Policy this month.

While energy importers are hurting, some South American oil exporters have announced positive economic numbers. Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that Brazil’s growth this year would be 0.5 percent higher than it had calculated in April. That is despite U.S. tariffs, which Washington said this week that it will hike to 25 percent on many Brazilian goods.

Though the IMF did not issue updates on Argentina or Guyana, April estimates suggest that their economies will grow by 3.5 percent and 16.2 percent this year, respectively. Argentina paid off a $4.3 billion chunk of its foreign debt last week, defying doubters of President Javier Milei’s economic overhaul; in June, inflation slowed to its lowest level in 10 months.

“The oil prices are definitely helping Argentina’s macro position,” said Luisa Palacios, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

Because oil is sold in dollars, the exports have allowed Argentina’s central bank to increase its dollar reserves. But oil exporters that also import large amounts of natural gas, such as Mexico and Colombia, have not reaped the same financial benefits.

After Brazil’s oil exports also initially rose at the start of the conflict, the Brazilian government took a unique approach. In mid-March, it slapped a 12 percent tax on oil exports to subsidize fuel for domestic users. The exports fell, but so too did inflation—an important metric in an election year.

Brazil’s export tax has triggered a debate in the country. A handful of oil companies are challenging the measure in court, calling it illegal and saying it worsens the investment climate. Some environmentalists, meanwhile, are calling on the........

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