Foreign Policy Making in America's Back Yard : The Case of Venezuela, 1936-1969

This paper considers the degree to which Venezuela was able to exercise autonomy in foreign political and economic spheres over a 60 year period from the 1930s to the 1960s. An oil rich but relatively weak state, Venezuela succeeded, over time, in carving out increased levels of economic autonomy from foreign multi-nationals, often in return for political support for the regional hegemon. Venezuela’s success in this regard was somewhat dependent on external events; World War II and the Cuban revolution in particular, providing changing the opportunity structures facing the country in such a way as to facilitate economic gains by enterprising local leaders as a quid pro quo for a relatively dependent position in the foreign political sphere