VENEZUELA’S ADHESION TO MERCOSUR: SOUTH AMERICAN STRATEGIES OF FOREIGN POLICY AND REGIONALISM

Abstract

This article addresses the accession of Venezuela to Mercosur, observing the political conjuncture of the early 2000s, in the national, regional and international levels. This perspective seeks to understand the strategic calculation developed by president Hugo Chávez administration to broaden its room for maneuver in the South American context and to reach its goals of international insertion. Thus, the processes of withdrawal of the Andean Community and the approximation to Southern Common Market are analyzed, as well as the impulse towards the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America. The analysis is accompanied by an interpretation of both domestic and international political phenomena, which allowed for the development of aspects of South American regionalism.