10 Jan 2025 – 11:30
Auditorium 1
The Venezuelan diaspora, the largest in Latin America, 9 million people, a third of its population, spread across 90 countries, is shaping a ‘New Geography’. Citizens and their transnational organisations are highlighting the inadequacy of the state.
Official diplomacy, subordinated to the political and ideological interests of the ruling elite, goes in the opposite direction to the ‘public diplomacy’ exercised by the diaspora and its organisations. More than 1,300 organisations share values and principles and their actions define the ‘Diaspora Governance Strategy’ and the future character of the foreign service.
Faced with the void left by ‘official diplomacy’, transnational diaspora organisations have increasingly taken on the responsibility of looking after these citizens, their expectations and needs, and maintaining links with the institutions in their country of origin.
The design of the ‘Governance Strategy’ takes into account the paradigm shift that breaks with prejudices and beliefs rooted in academic and political spaces; the work of more than a decade with diaspora organisations, which includes studies and projects in areas such as entrepreneurship, communication, mental health, etc.; and the weekly television and radio meetings with these organisations on five continents.
