Quo vadis multilateralismo sul-americano? Um estudo da relação entre a Colômbia e a Venezuela

This research aims to assess how multilateral organizations of political coordination and regional security influences the relations of historically conflicting dyads, with a specific focus on South American security dynamics regarding the correlation between traditional dynamics and the presence of non-state actors and non-traditional threats. The purpose is to analyze whether the decreased tension that created conditions for the development of multilateral regional cooperation in security in South America also produces desecuritizing effects on the bilateral relations – tradition- ally tense and with limited results of cooperation and trust – that make up this regionality. Therefore, this study investigates multilateral organizations, such as UNASUR and its South American Defense Council, and the possible changes in the Colombian-Venezuelan relationship since the creation of these organizations. The research is rooted in a qualitative approach and the methodology is a lit- erature review on the topic. In addition to academic literature, official UNASUR documents and news published in the media were used. The conclusions point out that the influence of institutionalized multilateral cooperation was not enough to resolve, even if minimally, the historically conflictual re- lationship between Venezuela and Colombia. Also, when considering that the analyzed period cor- responds to the first ten years of operation of the organizations studied, there is a symptomatic element that questions the effectiveness of regional cooperation in politics and security since its beginning.