policy paper 40 Petrocaribe: The Current Phase of Venezuela’s Oil Diplomacy in the Caribbean* F rancine J ácome ** Introduction The integrationist movement that has been under way through the first decade of the 21 st century in Latin America and the Caribbean has been marked by two fundamental factors(Benítez, Celi and Jácome, 2010). The first one is the growing fragmentation and disintegration at the continen­tal level, as a number of countries(Mexico, Central America, and the Ca­ribbean) have turned more toward the north, whereas South America has sought to promote an identity that has been unable to overcome the di­fferences between two blocs: on the one hand, the Andean region, where tensions and conflicts among neighboring countries have increased in re­cent years; and the Southern Cone, on the other hand, which has worked to advance mutual trust measures and peacekeeping operations especially within the framework of the United Nations. These differences have had an important impact on perceptions about the main threats faced by countries in terms of security and defense, as well as on the agendas and mechanisms that are designed to address them, thus resulting in a setback for regional cooperation on these issues des­pite the creation and implementation of new regional bodies such as the South American Defense Council of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). Moreover, this opposition between two different views on Latin American and Caribbean has recently played itself out in the Caribbean, especially as ties between Brazil and Cuba have grown stronger and as Suriname and Guyana have entered UNASUR. Noviembre de 2011