Foreign policy of Hugo Chávez

The foreign policy of the Hugo Chávez administration concerns the policy initiatives made by Venezuela under its former President, Hugo Chávez, towards other states. Chávez's foreign policy may be roughly divided into that concerned with United States-Venezuela relations and that concerned with Venezuela's relations with other states, particularly those in Latin America and developing countries on other continents. In many respects the policies of the Chávez government were a substantial break from the previous

Venezuela chaired the Group of 77 in 2002.

Hugo Chávez refocused Venezuelan foreign policy on Latin American economic and social integration by enacting bilateral trade and reciprocal aid agreements, including his so-called "oil diplomacy". Chávez stated that Venezuela has "a strong oil card to play on the geopolitical stage ... It is a card that we are going to play with toughness against the toughest country in the world, the United States."

Chávez made Latin American integration the keystone of his administration's foreign policy. Venezuela worked closely with its neighbors following the 1997 Summit of the Americas in many areas—particularly energy integration—and championed the OAS decision to adopt the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption, also being among the first to ratify it (in 1997). Venezuela also participates in the UN Friends groups for Haiti. It became a full member of the Mercosur trade bloc on the 31 July 2012, expanding its involvement in the hemisphere's trade integration prospects. The Venezuelan government advocates an end to Cuba's US-imposed isolation and a "multi-polar" world based on ties among developing countries. Exemplars of this prioritization have come in the cooperative multinational institutions Chávez helped found: Petrocaribe, Petrosur, and TeleSUR. Bilateral trade relationships with other Latin American countries have also played a major role in his policy, with Chávez increasing arms purchases from Brazil, forming oil-for-expertise trade arrangements with Cuba, funding an approximately $300 million ex gratia oil pipeline built to provide discounted natural gas to Colombia, and initiating barter arrangements that, among other things, exchange Venezuelan petroleum for cash-strapped Argentina's meat and dairy products. Chavez's re-election in December 2006 was seen as a boost to Cuba.

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