Monções (Sep 2015)
The Brazilian foreign policy for the Guyana region
Abstract
This paper aims to discuss contemporary Brazilian foreign policy for the Guyana region. Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana, inserted in the Transnational Amazon, are the territories that comprise the area in focus. Since the 2000s, South America became the strategic focus of Brazil's foreign policy and projects such as IIRSA and Mercosur are important pillars of this strategy. The Guianas show great potential for exploration of natural resources and its location is strategic as it may represent a rapprochement between the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) through Guyana, the organization's headquarters, and the European Union (EU) through the French Guiana. However, even in this scenario in the Guyana region, the Brazilian approach was timid, standing "backwards" to the South American subcontinent.
