He's on track to bring South America under his leadership.
Posted on 04/29/2005 6:10:24 AM PDT by OESY
...My Venezuelan contact assured me that there is evidence of infiltration in the Ecuadoran armed forces.
He also told me that Chávez envisions an axis of power linking Brasilia, Montevideo and Buenos Aires. As it is, these populist governments aren't much for standing on principle and anything anti-Yanqui scores cheap domestic points; some may even aspire to Venezuelan-style authoritarianism. But it is also possible that cooperation with Chávez is part survival technique to ward off his use of bullying militants.
...[T]he revolution must necessarily "break the spine of democracy in the region. That is Colombia."
Colombians are specifically worried about three things. The first is Chávez's overt weapons buildup. War is not considered imminent. But there is a fear that the persistent threat from a hostile neighbor engaged aggressively in arms acquisition will take a toll politically and economically.
The second concern is Chávez support for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN). For years Castro has been giving their troops medical care in Cuba. But now Chávez is providing safe haven to them just across the Colombian border....
The third big worry that Colombians have about Venezuelan aggression is the likelihood that Chávez will try to interfere in the 2006 presidential elections. There is good reason to believe that Chávez will choose his Colombian protégé, fund him liberally, and should he "win," help him to consolidate power....
Castro's revolution is alive and active all over Latin America. Where he and his Venezuelan mini-me have not gained the upper hand, they have been successful in fueling violence and instability and discouraging development.
If Mr. Bolton felt, in recent years, that U.S. intelligence in the region was wanting and could end up costing U.S. interests, he was prescient....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Venezuela news ping!
I read this excellent WSJ article this morning and am glad to see it shared w. FReepers.
I too think that Bolton's accuracy on the situation in Latin America - and his frustration with the left-leaning "analysts" at State that hid this from the light of day for years - is behind the attacks on him by the Dems and leftists. I think this is even more responsible for their Bolton-hatred than their fears about his attitude to the UN. Castro is their boy, and Chavez is his prophet, and they are furious that Bolton disagrees.
Castro-Chavez ping.
Sad.
Things are going to get worse before they get better. The next "elections" in Venezuela will be telling.
>> So far, the US has not taken this threat very seriously.
once he shuts off the oil we will take it seriously, but not before that.
so it goes.
What's worse is that a lot of my friends are embracing this down there. : (
I can't imagine when or if I'll return.
He's on track to bring South America under his leadership.
just as castro was aging, and with less influence than he'd had all of his career, along comes chavez to reinvigorate him.
chavez had ties to china, brazil, cuba, n korea, iran, etc.
no doubt the bush administration is going to need to turn its attention to this hemisphere.
Venezuelan president Chávez arrived in Cuba accompanied by a numerous delegation of ministers and businessmen prepared to push forward the exchange with the island and proposed in his Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) as an alternative to the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) proposed by the US, according to Efe.
On the agenda of this visit is the signing of a dozen cooperation agreements, some concerning basic activities such as electricity and oil, and the celebration of the first meeting for the establishment of ALBA.
ALBA "already started up some time ago. It is under development, we are under development" said Chávez in brief comments to the press during his first public appearance alongside Cuban leader Castro, at the inauguration of an office of the gigantic Venezuelan oil company PDVSA in the Commerce Exchange in Havana. The presence of PDVSA in Cuba has strategic importance for both countries.
Venezuela intends to make the island its center of operations for the Caribbean and Cuba has benefited from a significant increase in the supply of Venezuelan oil agreed to in the Integral Cooperation Agreement written in 2000.
"We are building a base of operations in Cuba", said on Wednesday the Venezuelan Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Rafael Ramírez.
The minister said that oil exports to the island had surpassed the 50,000 barrels a day at preferential prices established in the agreement and had reached 80.000 barrels.
With this increase in the supply of oil to the island, Venezuela has become the main pillar of the weakened Cuban economy that, according to Castro, has begun to recover now from its "special period" in which it had been submerged since the fall of the Soviet Block. In addition, Cuba and Venezuela intend to promote bilateral commerce, which Cuban officials estimated at some $1.5 billion dollars in 2004.
To achieve it, the Industrial Bank of Venezuela (BIV) opened today a branch office in Havana with some $400 million dollars assigned for commercial operations made up of non-petroleum products.
Cuba hopes for all kinds of consumer goods from Venezuela, from canned sardines to chocolate to clothing, furniture, and home appliances, which could be sold at below-normal prices in a chain of stores that they will open on the island.
The president of Industrial Bank of Venezuela, Luis Quiaro, explained to EFE that the new office will operate under a special license, the first granted in Cuba to a foreign bank, which will facilitate the receipt and granting of credit or financing.
This week, he went on, there will be coordination meetings concerning the financing of this new business scheme, which is based on the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas.
The BIV has $200 million dollars from the Development Bank, another $81 million through Banco Exterior, and $119 million more in credit to launch this commercial relationship.
To explore possibilities in the Cuban market, more than 200 businesses have come to the Venezuelan Products Exposition, which will remain open until Saturday in Havana.
Beyond business, Chávez and Castro will have the chance for long and extended talks about ALBA, the situation in Latin America, and their differences with Washington in the special session of the 1st Reunion for the establishment of ALBA expected for tonight.
From discussing the benefits of ALBA they will move on to criticism of FTAA in a special session of the 4th Hemispheric Meeting against the Free Trade Area of the Americas organized for tomorrow, Friday.***
Chavez is a master at blending what we traditionally consider left wing and right wing politics into a single brew. Most of us have always recognized that they were but two sides of a single coin, but Chavez combines them effectively.
A key part of his appeal is trans-latin nationalism. Latin America's default political philosophy is a kind of populism that tends easily toward leftist solutions, but his anti-americanism inspires nationalist pride that drives a lot of his popularity. It started as Venezuelan nationalism but he has effectively reached out to the rest of the region, his agents have worked with Salvadoran officers, Ecuadorian officers, Peruvian officers, and so on, and he has blended Cubans into the mix.
Nationalism reaches where simple marxism can't, and together they are a heady mixture. Together they are tough competition for us because on a strictly philosophical plain, we can compete with marxism. But if classic liberalism, what Chavez calls "neo-liberalism", is seen as alien, it is seen as domination by the Americans, nationalism has done its work, preventing debate from ever taking place.
He is pushing the idea that Colombia, under attack by narco-marxism, is an American peon for not surrendering to them. He pushes the idea that coca is authentic to Bolivian culture, and that hydrocarbons will enslave them to the Americans, thus using nationalism to shut off energy competition and to isolate the Colombians at the same time.
A truly excellent analysis!
errr, i think this has been tried before -- like Italy beginning in the 1920s and Germany in the 1930s. in each case, a socialist party decided it could be more effective by modifying the typical nationalization of industry and allowing a bit more decentralization and profit to non-state owned companies, all the while maintaining control of the industry by regulations and oversight boards...
i think it is called fascism.
it is not by accident or coincidence that fidel castro's role model and hero when he was a university student was -- benito mussolini
You are right, of course. Chavez' mentor was Norberto Ceresole, who was openly fascist, had no use for democratic niceties, thought the idea of democracy was juvenile.
Bravo for Bolton sounding the alarm!
My bold. O'Grady is right on, as usual.
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