Abstract

CHAVES GARCIA, Carlos Alberto. The Political Crisis in Venezuela and the Role of the Lima Group: Stocktaking and Challenges of its Diplomatic Action. rev.relac.int.estrateg.segur. [online]. 2020, vol.15, n.1, pp.177-193.  Epub Aug 21, 2020. ISSN 1909-3063.  https://doi.org/10.18359/ries.4272.

Given the deepening of the political, social, economic, and humanitarian crisis that Venezuela has been experiencing since 2017 and its adverse side effects for the region, the Lima Group emerges as a coalition of ideologically related countries to exercise multilateral diplomacy in order to defend democratic institutions in Venezuela. The primary objective of this article is to make a critical assessment of the work done and challenges faced by the diplomatic action of this regional mechanism with respect to the political crisis in Venezuela. From the documentary monitoring of the Lima Group's official statements and announcements in the 2017-2019 period, and the application of discourse analysis techniques, progressive radicalization of the discourse of such regional mechanism was identified in terms of the transit from mediation diplomacy to confrontation diplomacy centered on the international isolation of Nicolás Maduro's rule in the form of diplomatic siege. The article presents a stocktaking of achievements, weaknesses, and risks that are identified in the Group's diplomatic management, and concludes with a set of challenges arising from the limits and possibilities of this multilateral mechanism in the short term.

Keywords : Diplomatic siege; multilateral diplomacy; Lima Group; democratic transition; Venezuela.

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