ABSTRACT
The Caribbean, as a zone of peace, must be a guarantee that the scandalous arming of interest’s alien to Latin American destiny will be confronted by a sturdily effective wall. Indeed, President Herrera's predecessor had already been taxed by Trinidad-Tobago's Prime Minister Eric Williams with undertaking a "recolonization of the Caribbean. Yet policy toward the circum-Caribbean was not primary, and Venezuela was more preoccupied with its perceptions of Brazilian expansionism and with policy in South America. A series of bilateral agreements further augmented the Venezuelan presence, as well as arousing Caribbean apprehension over possible hegemonic ambitions in Caracas. At least four intricately interrelated strands of interest are woven into the fabric of Venezuelan policy toward the Caribbean: the ideological, the geopolitical, the economic, and the domestic partisan. A final dimension to the limitations of Venezuelan oil diplomacy lies in the long unresolved border disputes with its two immediate neighbors, Colombia and Guyana.
