In 2018, Fabiana Perera wrote “U.S. Policy Options for Maduro’s Venezuela: Benign Engagement, Not Benign Neglect,” assessing U.S. strategies vis-à-vis Venezuela and engagement in Latin America. With a renewed focus on the region, we invited Fabiana back to reflect on her article.Read more below:Image: Joka Madruga/FlickrIn your 2018 article, “U.S. Policy Options for Maduro’s Venezuela: Benign Engagement, Not Benign Neglect“, you argued that “withholding capital from the regime may be one of the only ways to bring about change.” How does Russia’s increased support of the Nicolás Maduro regime, in the form of 17 new security and energy agreements, affect the efficacy of this strategy?Latin America has attracted significant interest from U.S. competitors, whose interest and investment has reduced the impact that unilateral U.S. actions have on many countries in the region, including Venezuela. While Russia’s support of the regime through these agreements is significant in that it provides international legitimacy and a lifeline to Maduro, it would ultimately be insufficient if the United States were to more effectively limit income and international access to the regime and its cronies.You mentioned both Cuba and Venezuela’s poor human rights records as a reason for tense U.S. relations. Although Cuba remains a repressive, authoritarian society (like Venezuela), the United States has taken steps to normalize relations with Cuba. What did this change teach us about how U.S. policy affects the human rights record and democratization of an authoritarian country? What can we do differently moving forward?The United States has taken steps forward and back to normalize relations with Cuba which was the only authoritarian country in the hemisphere from the end of Augusto Pinochet’s regime in Chile in 1990 to 2007 when Hugo Chávez veered Venezuela away from democracy. Changes in U.S. policy towards Cuba did not bring about significant changes in its regime, and neither did decades of diplomatic
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In 2018, Fabiana Perera wrote “U.S. Policy Options for Maduro’s Venezuela: Benign Engagement, Not Benign Neglect,” assessing U.S. strategies vis-à-vis Venezuela and engagement in Latin America. With a renewed focus on the region, we invited Fabiana back to reflect on her article.Read more below:Image: Joka Madruga/FlickrIn your 2018 article, “U.S. Policy Options for Maduro’s Venezuela: Benign Engagement, Not Benign Neglect“, you argued that “withholding capital from the regime may be one of the only ways to bring about change.” How does Russia’s increased support of the Nicolás Maduro regime, in the form of 17 new security and energy agreements, affect the efficacy of this
