Betancourt Doctrine

The Betancourt Doctrine is a foreign policy doctrine promoted by the president of Venezuela Rómulo Betancourt that establishes the breaking of diplomatic relations with governments without democratic and dictatorial origins.

History

When sworn into office in front of the Congress of the Republic in the Federal Legislative Palace, Betancourt made his political perspective clear and proclaimed what is today known as the Betancourt Doctrine, a name that he himself wrote, with the following words:

We will ask for cooperation from other democratic governments of America to ask, united, that the Organization of American States exclude from their own the dictatorial governments because they not only affront the dignity of America, but also because Article 1 of the Charter of Bogotá, a constitutive record of the OAS establishes that only the governments of respectable origin born of the popular expression, through the only legitimate source of power, can form part of this organism. Regimes that do not respect human rights, which violate the freedoms of their citizens and tyranny them with the support of totalitarian policies, must be subjected to rigorous sanitary cord and eradicated through the collective peaceful action of the international legal community.

- Betancourt.

This proclamation is understood as an instrument of protection for democratic regimes, the result of the free election of the people. It rejects the recognition of non-democratic or illegitimate governments, which has its meaning in the breaking of diplomatic relations with those dictatorial countries and proclaims the alliance with those who practice democratic politics in their towns.

Under the action of the Betancourt Doctrine, Venezuela maintained good relations with democratic governments, especially with the government of John F. Kennedy in the United States, Luis Muñoz Marín in Puerto Rico, Manuel Ávila Camacho and Adolfo López Mateos in Mexico and Alberto Lleras Camargo in Colombia. In turn, it cut diplomatic relations with the governments of Spain, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti.

End of doctrine

During the first government of Rafael Caldera, the Betancourt doctrine ceased, resuming relations with all Latin American countries, including dictatorships and de facto governments.