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From: www.timesonline.co.uk/art...86,00.html
___________________________
May 11, 2006
Forget Castro: meet the new king of Latin America
By Tom Baldwin and David Adams
Hugo Chávez is using Venezuela's oil riches to influence his friends and irritate the neighbours
IT SHOULD be no surprise that Hugo Chávez prefers to dine with Ken Livingstone rather than Tony Blair on his trip to London: the Venezuelan President plays a similar role in global politics to that once played by his host in Britain.
Mr Livingstone has revelled in tweaking the tail of powerful prime ministers in their own backyard while spending vast sums of money to promote his own agenda. Señor Chávez has similarly set himself up as irritant-in-chief to George Bush.
Both have an unfortunate predilection for comparing their enemies to Nazis. If the London Mayor accuses a reporter of behaving like an SS Death Camp guard, Señor Chávez says “Hitler would be like a suckling baby next to George W. Bush†while branding Mr Blair the “main ally of Hitlerâ€.
In the meantime he has praised Robert Mugabe as a “freedom-fighterâ€, hails Fidel Castro as his mentor and defends Saddam Hussein. He is seeking to build military alliances with Iran and North Korea — founding members of Mr Bush’s “axis of evilâ€.
But the Venezuelan leader can no longer be easily dismissed as Latin America’s equivalent to the “loony Leftâ€. Señor Chávez’s use of his country’s enormous oil wealth has made him a growing threat to the traditional US hegemony in Latin America. He talks of fulfilling the South American revolutionary dream of Simón Bolivar by creating a united power bloc, a genuine counter-point to what he terms Mr Bush’s imperialism.
Already he has developed what he calls “an axis of good†with Cuba and Bolivia — where Evo Morales, its populist new President, caused tremors across global markets by announcing that he was following Venezuela’s lead in nationalising energy resources.
He admits to having pumped at least $16 billion (£9 billion) of oil profits into three dozen countries, mostly in Latin America, since taking power seven years ago. Some estimates say this spending has been even higher, possibly as much as $27 billion. Either way, it easily outstrips US spending of $13 billion in the region over the same period.
Venezuela recently helped Argentina to pay off its $2.3 billion debt to the IMF, an institution widely reviled across the continent for foisting neo-liberal economic policies upon it. Señor Chávez gives $1 billion a year in oil to Cuba, effectively replacing the Soviet Union in propping up President Castro, as well as offering cut-price fuel to more than a dozen other other Caribbean countries. He flies Salvadorans in for eye surgery, subsidises samba parades in Brazil and hands out aid to Indonesian tsunami victims and impoverished African states.
Señor Chávez’s generosity has even extended to the United States, providing heating oil at 40 per cent discounts to 181,000 of the poorest households in places such as the Bronx or Harlem. “We use Venezuelan oil for peace, for love, for lifting people from their misery,†he told a group of 60 US beneficiaries who were flown in to Caracas last month so that they could express their gratitude in front of the media.
Señor Chávez hopes to extend his Latin American alliance with the election of Ollanta Humala as president of Peru on June 4. In Mexico, he is supporting the distinctly anti-American Andrés Manuel López Obrador in July elections and backing Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista former president of Nicaragua, to return to power in November. In Ecuador, the former Economy Minister Rafael Correa is already being described as a “Chavista†candidate. In Argentina, President Nestor Kirchner is seen as a broad ally in his hostility to free trade and neo-liberal economics.
The swing to Señor Chávez’s brand of nationalist populism is not uniform. He is unpopular in Brazil and there is some evidence that his support for candidates in Mexico and Peru may be damaging their chances.
But he is undoubtedly a new phenomenon on the global stage. Now he is bringing his message, if not his largesse, to Europe. His schedule includes a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI — always a political prize for a populist leader of a Latin American country. There will also be talks with the EU and then what Downing Street yesterday rather sniffily termed a “private visit†to London. This will include a mass rally at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, a trip to see left-wing Labour MPs at the Commons, talks with the TUC and a glittering banquet hosted by Mr Livingstone.
Señor Chávez has become an icon to anti-globalisation, anti-American activists everywhere, including London where next week he will, doubtless, be feted. Michael Shifter, a Venezuelan expert from the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington said: “Chávez will be needling Blair just like he needles Bush — it is how he derives pleasure. Blair is encountering some political difficultly at present and Chávez will be on to that.â€
It was not always thus. After a visit to London in April 1998, Señor Chávez declared himself a convert to Mr Blair’s Third Way. The last time he came to London in 2001, he was given tea with the Queen, dinner with John Prescott and enjoyed productive talks with Mr Blair and business leaders.
But relations with the US and Britain have steadily deteriorated since he accused Washington in April 2002 of backing a failed “coup†against him. He responded by threatening to cut off oil exports, which account for 12 per cent of American supplies — and make a deal instead with China. The evangelist Pat Robertson did not help matters last year by suggesting US “special forces should take him outâ€.
Señor Chávez accuses the US of plotting to invade Venezuela, saying that is why he is buying 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles and, maybe, MiG jets from Russia. In the slums of Caracas, where he is hugely popular, the Venezuelan President’s face beams out from posters calling on his people to resist American military might.
The US, of course, denies that there is any such invasion plan. Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, has instead talked of an “inoculation strategy†against a country she called a “sidekick†of Iran. “The politics of energy is warping diplomacy around the world,†she said. “It has given extraordinary power to some states that are using that power in not-very-good ways for the international system.†Señor Chávez’s response was to blow a screen kiss to Dr Rice, telling her: “Don’t mess with me, girl.â€
John Negroponte, the US Director of National Intelligence, said pointedly that Señor Chávez is “spending considerable sums involving himself in the political and economic life of other countries . . . despite the very real economic and social needs of his own countryâ€.
Indeed, Venezuela’s economy has barely grown and despite the boasts of Señor Chávez, the numbers of his own citizens living in abject poverty remain largely unaltered. Nor is the regime the kind of model democracy that its admirers, including many Labour MPs, like to think it is. Chávez loyalists control every key branch of government, including the five-member National Elections Commission, the Supreme Court and the heavily purged Armed Forces. Military officers now hold many senior posts in the civil service. Although opposition political parties are still allowed to exist (unlike Cuba), they are not represented in the 167-seat National Assembly after they boycotted elections last year following allegations of official fraud.
Presidential elections are due in December, and at least two opposition candidates have said they will run, but only on the condition that the Government observes basic rules of fairness. In the event that he runs unopposed Señor Chávez said last weekend that he might declare himself President “indefinitelyâ€, or at least until 2031.
But is this a problem of the US’s making? When he was elected in 2000, Mr Bush declared Latin America to be his top foreign policy priority, only to ignore it after the September 11 attacks. “One day Bush was our ‘mejor amigo’ and the next he wouldn’t take a our phone calls,†a former Mexican political aide said recently.
Dr Rice has admitted that the US may have been “shooting itself in the foot†by alienating potential allies such as President Lula of Brazil and President Bachelet in Chile. They are not aggressive anti-American populists like Señor Chávez, but the US has not always bothered to notice the difference. Mr Shifter said: “The US is guilty of neglect — we have just blown it. The US has not looked after its allies. It is perceived as being only worried about Afghanistan and Iraq.â€
This month, Señor Chávez made Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. It said that his growing power in Latin America and beyond is “what happens when the US disses an entire continentâ€.
The UK, though never a big player in the region, must also shoulder its share of the blame. Denis MacShane, a former Foreign Office minister, said: “There has been a huge change sweeping through Latin America and it’s important that Britaisupports progressive politicians who do not indulge in the demagogic rhetoric of Chávez.â€
He pointed out that Mr Blair’s visit to Latin America in 2001 was the last by any serving member of the Cabinet. A continent that had left behind the juntas of the 1980s to embrace democracy “deserves better than thatâ€.
___________________________
May 11, 2006
Forget Castro: meet the new king of Latin America
By Tom Baldwin and David Adams
Hugo Chávez is using Venezuela's oil riches to influence his friends and irritate the neighbours
IT SHOULD be no surprise that Hugo Chávez prefers to dine with Ken Livingstone rather than Tony Blair on his trip to London: the Venezuelan President plays a similar role in global politics to that once played by his host in Britain.
Mr Livingstone has revelled in tweaking the tail of powerful prime ministers in their own backyard while spending vast sums of money to promote his own agenda. Señor Chávez has similarly set himself up as irritant-in-chief to George Bush.
Both have an unfortunate predilection for comparing their enemies to Nazis. If the London Mayor accuses a reporter of behaving like an SS Death Camp guard, Señor Chávez says “Hitler would be like a suckling baby next to George W. Bush†while branding Mr Blair the “main ally of Hitlerâ€.
In the meantime he has praised Robert Mugabe as a “freedom-fighterâ€, hails Fidel Castro as his mentor and defends Saddam Hussein. He is seeking to build military alliances with Iran and North Korea — founding members of Mr Bush’s “axis of evilâ€.
But the Venezuelan leader can no longer be easily dismissed as Latin America’s equivalent to the “loony Leftâ€. Señor Chávez’s use of his country’s enormous oil wealth has made him a growing threat to the traditional US hegemony in Latin America. He talks of fulfilling the South American revolutionary dream of Simón Bolivar by creating a united power bloc, a genuine counter-point to what he terms Mr Bush’s imperialism.
Already he has developed what he calls “an axis of good†with Cuba and Bolivia — where Evo Morales, its populist new President, caused tremors across global markets by announcing that he was following Venezuela’s lead in nationalising energy resources.
He admits to having pumped at least $16 billion (£9 billion) of oil profits into three dozen countries, mostly in Latin America, since taking power seven years ago. Some estimates say this spending has been even higher, possibly as much as $27 billion. Either way, it easily outstrips US spending of $13 billion in the region over the same period.
Venezuela recently helped Argentina to pay off its $2.3 billion debt to the IMF, an institution widely reviled across the continent for foisting neo-liberal economic policies upon it. Señor Chávez gives $1 billion a year in oil to Cuba, effectively replacing the Soviet Union in propping up President Castro, as well as offering cut-price fuel to more than a dozen other other Caribbean countries. He flies Salvadorans in for eye surgery, subsidises samba parades in Brazil and hands out aid to Indonesian tsunami victims and impoverished African states.
Señor Chávez’s generosity has even extended to the United States, providing heating oil at 40 per cent discounts to 181,000 of the poorest households in places such as the Bronx or Harlem. “We use Venezuelan oil for peace, for love, for lifting people from their misery,†he told a group of 60 US beneficiaries who were flown in to Caracas last month so that they could express their gratitude in front of the media.
Señor Chávez hopes to extend his Latin American alliance with the election of Ollanta Humala as president of Peru on June 4. In Mexico, he is supporting the distinctly anti-American Andrés Manuel López Obrador in July elections and backing Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista former president of Nicaragua, to return to power in November. In Ecuador, the former Economy Minister Rafael Correa is already being described as a “Chavista†candidate. In Argentina, President Nestor Kirchner is seen as a broad ally in his hostility to free trade and neo-liberal economics.
The swing to Señor Chávez’s brand of nationalist populism is not uniform. He is unpopular in Brazil and there is some evidence that his support for candidates in Mexico and Peru may be damaging their chances.
But he is undoubtedly a new phenomenon on the global stage. Now he is bringing his message, if not his largesse, to Europe. His schedule includes a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI — always a political prize for a populist leader of a Latin American country. There will also be talks with the EU and then what Downing Street yesterday rather sniffily termed a “private visit†to London. This will include a mass rally at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, a trip to see left-wing Labour MPs at the Commons, talks with the TUC and a glittering banquet hosted by Mr Livingstone.
Señor Chávez has become an icon to anti-globalisation, anti-American activists everywhere, including London where next week he will, doubtless, be feted. Michael Shifter, a Venezuelan expert from the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington said: “Chávez will be needling Blair just like he needles Bush — it is how he derives pleasure. Blair is encountering some political difficultly at present and Chávez will be on to that.â€
It was not always thus. After a visit to London in April 1998, Señor Chávez declared himself a convert to Mr Blair’s Third Way. The last time he came to London in 2001, he was given tea with the Queen, dinner with John Prescott and enjoyed productive talks with Mr Blair and business leaders.
But relations with the US and Britain have steadily deteriorated since he accused Washington in April 2002 of backing a failed “coup†against him. He responded by threatening to cut off oil exports, which account for 12 per cent of American supplies — and make a deal instead with China. The evangelist Pat Robertson did not help matters last year by suggesting US “special forces should take him outâ€.
Señor Chávez accuses the US of plotting to invade Venezuela, saying that is why he is buying 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles and, maybe, MiG jets from Russia. In the slums of Caracas, where he is hugely popular, the Venezuelan President’s face beams out from posters calling on his people to resist American military might.
The US, of course, denies that there is any such invasion plan. Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, has instead talked of an “inoculation strategy†against a country she called a “sidekick†of Iran. “The politics of energy is warping diplomacy around the world,†she said. “It has given extraordinary power to some states that are using that power in not-very-good ways for the international system.†Señor Chávez’s response was to blow a screen kiss to Dr Rice, telling her: “Don’t mess with me, girl.â€
John Negroponte, the US Director of National Intelligence, said pointedly that Señor Chávez is “spending considerable sums involving himself in the political and economic life of other countries . . . despite the very real economic and social needs of his own countryâ€.
Indeed, Venezuela’s economy has barely grown and despite the boasts of Señor Chávez, the numbers of his own citizens living in abject poverty remain largely unaltered. Nor is the regime the kind of model democracy that its admirers, including many Labour MPs, like to think it is. Chávez loyalists control every key branch of government, including the five-member National Elections Commission, the Supreme Court and the heavily purged Armed Forces. Military officers now hold many senior posts in the civil service. Although opposition political parties are still allowed to exist (unlike Cuba), they are not represented in the 167-seat National Assembly after they boycotted elections last year following allegations of official fraud.
Presidential elections are due in December, and at least two opposition candidates have said they will run, but only on the condition that the Government observes basic rules of fairness. In the event that he runs unopposed Señor Chávez said last weekend that he might declare himself President “indefinitelyâ€, or at least until 2031.
But is this a problem of the US’s making? When he was elected in 2000, Mr Bush declared Latin America to be his top foreign policy priority, only to ignore it after the September 11 attacks. “One day Bush was our ‘mejor amigo’ and the next he wouldn’t take a our phone calls,†a former Mexican political aide said recently.
Dr Rice has admitted that the US may have been “shooting itself in the foot†by alienating potential allies such as President Lula of Brazil and President Bachelet in Chile. They are not aggressive anti-American populists like Señor Chávez, but the US has not always bothered to notice the difference. Mr Shifter said: “The US is guilty of neglect — we have just blown it. The US has not looked after its allies. It is perceived as being only worried about Afghanistan and Iraq.â€
This month, Señor Chávez made Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. It said that his growing power in Latin America and beyond is “what happens when the US disses an entire continentâ€.
The UK, though never a big player in the region, must also shoulder its share of the blame. Denis MacShane, a former Foreign Office minister, said: “There has been a huge change sweeping through Latin America and it’s important that Britaisupports progressive politicians who do not indulge in the demagogic rhetoric of Chávez.â€
He pointed out that Mr Blair’s visit to Latin America in 2001 was the last by any serving member of the Cabinet. A continent that had left behind the juntas of the 1980s to embrace democracy “deserves better than thatâ€.