Venezuela And Regionalization
...achieve greater
autonomy and development within the international system. Examine the prospects it
holds out for a particular country or set of countries within the region.”
Introduction
Regionalization is the diametric opposite of globalization; instead of a nation throwing itself
into the matrix of multinational corporate control of ever-increasing amounts of monetary
and cultural capital, eroding its national and cultural sovereignty, a nation or regions can
embrace regionalization, which focuses on local or regional trade and cultural alliances
and the bolstering of national strength and relying on unilateral policy decisions vis-à-vis
deferring to international, multilateral institutions. Venezuela, under the stewardship of its
current president, Hugo Chávez, is operating in reaction to and against the conformity
suggested by the ‘radical’ thesis of globalization, which holds that globalisation is some
sort of potentially great economic and cultural equalizer which will, over time, put all
nation-states on equal par with one another since capital is increasingly less nation-based
in a global economy. This equalization should in theory compensate for the fact that “tran-
snational capital and structures are inexorably undermining the state and national sover-
eignty... [however] globalization has had the opposite effect, of widening the gap between
rich and poor nations.” (Ellner, 2002, p. 88) Chavez has made it clear both in his rhetoric
and his government’s policies – both domestic and foreign – that he believes the long-term
vitality, stability, and viability of Venezuela are dependent upon it undertaking a path which
runs contrary to the compliant and often submissive policies of other Latin American na-
tions, that of a nation which charts its own regionalized course and opts to unilaterally set
its own...
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