South America, Peace Operations and MINUSTAH: The View from Venezuela

Abstract

This article explores the opposition to the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) articulated by the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frias and the broader Bolivarian critique of militarized intervention and the liberal peacebuilding agenda. It argues that the structural drivers of South and Central America's embrace of peace operations were fundamentally absent in Venezuela, placing the country on the outside of regional peacekeeping initiatives building up to and including MINUSTAH. The article addresses Venezuelan efforts to craft an alternative peace and security agenda, concluding that there are significant fiscal and institutional challenges to this being realized.