The United States and Promotion of Democracy in Latin America: The Case of Venezuela
Subject Areas :
Ahmad Sabouri Nejad
1
(دکتری مطالعات منطقه ای دانشگاه تهران)
Akram Taha
2
(دکتری مطالعات منطقه ای دانشگاه تهران)
Keywords: Venezuela, promotion of democracy, the National Endowment for Democracy, United States Agency for International Development,
Abstract :
Democracy promotion is one of the most important US strategies after the cold war to keep its dominance and influence in Latin America. Accompaniment and the appropriateness of this policy with the formation of the third wave of democratization caused American politicians to use it as a tool to promote their plans in the region. By considering democracy promotion (William Robinson’s view) in Latin America with focus on Venezuela as its basis, this article tries to investigate on the basis of what criteria and mechanisms has US applied democracy promotion to Latin America? The results of this study show that over the last quarter, US government has made endless efforts and planning in Latin America to let those elites, who agreed with neoliberal economic system and free market, come to power. Therefore it tried to prevent people, groups, nationalist and left-wing parties and totally, those who opposed neoliberal economic system from coming to power. To this end, destabilization of left and nationalist governments in the target countries was of the most important mechanisms in democracy promotion policy in Latin America; A policy which was pursued during all Hugo Chavez administration and even after that.
