Once had a professor who claimed that once a mineral rich country comes to depend on the export of that mineral ( oil, coal, timber, whatever), inevitably food shortages develop, the price of food increases and there is social unrest and political instability.
Professor of what? Fictional Education?.....................
The rent-a-rig company I worked for sent me down there back in the '80s. Had to fly from Caracas east 200 miles to Puerto La Cruz. Looking out the window, I mentioned to the guy next to me that there was mostly bush, with little development. He said that the area used to be covered with farms, but everyone left to work in the oil fields, and now Venezuela had to import most of its food.