Objective/Context:

Central America, Colombia and Venezuela face important security challenges. Despite its rhetoric about the importance of human security, the EU applies different policies to the three conflicts: a security-development nexus in Central America, a combination of donor engagement and “securitization” in Colombia and a mixture of sanctions and diplomacy in Venezuela. Employing a comparative approach based on a common methodological framework, this article sets out to determine which EU concept of security - State or human-focused -is applied to each conflict and assess its degree of coherence.

Methodology:

Basing itself on a qualitative content analysis, the article addresses the following question: to what extent does State or human security govern the EU´s respective policies towards these countries and how consistent are they?

Conclusions:

The article finds that, despite its official discourse, the EU´s security-development nexus is not a coherent policy and its relationship with the United States, its transatlantic “partner” and the region’s main donor, are mainly responsible for that policy´s internal and external inconsistencies.

Originality:

The article questions the EU’s image as a soft power and development partner. Although the EU continues to deal with the causes of insecurity, like inequality and poverty, rather than its consequences, its development-security nexus tends to “securitize” development, particularly in countries, like Colombia and Venezuela, which, due to their armed conflicts and fragile States, are regarded as “security threats.”