중남미

The paper aims to study the perception of the political agents of the Congress through the analysis of their votes on the context of the acceptance of Venezuela into MERCOSUR, relating it to the potential gains coming from its admission. The relevance of the topic is justified by the importance that the bloc would acquire accepting a new member, considering the expansion of the internal consumer market and the increase of oil reserves of the bloc. Therefore, the intention is to clarify the political situation favorable to the integration and, taking the Brazilian perception in consideration, establish the relationship between economic gains that would come from the acceptance of Venezuela as a state member and the political discourse regarding this subject in the National Congress. Through the votes of deputies and senators we mapped the variables that act as important factors in the decision-making process of lawmakers. It was found that the party influence, though strong, suffers marginal effects of variables such as the influence of regional and local interests when it comes to voting on foreign policy.