Oil in Latin America: Potential to further Development?

I recently received an email forward about the oil dependence on the Middle East which suggested that Americans not buy oil from oil companies whose oil is from the Middle East. Among those companies who don’t are Citgo, Sonoco and Conoco. Most of these companies oil comes from Latin America. If the United States American people began to consume oil predominantly from Latin America this could have various interesting implications on economic development. Thus, it could be very beneficial to US foreign policy to cultivate positive relations with those Latin American countries which are oil producers. This is exceptionally interesting in lieu of Thomas Friedman’s recent article in the New York Times (I wrote about it about a month ago but no longer have the link) which suggests that the quickest way for economic reform in the Middle East is through an oil boycott. He claims that economic incentives are the most effective. It is true, that the US has successfully implemented economic sanctions in the past which have had dire effects on the country which was sanction (cf. Nicaragua 1980s).