Interesting thesis. To place so much emphasis on the fluffy and insubstantial "perception" of American competence, power, and influence in Venezuela, however, robs this narrative of any impact whatsoever.
Yes, bill clinton destroyed the CIA. If he had not, September 11th could not have happened, and if he had not, chavez would be out of power.
Not to worry, George W. Bush is rebuilding the competence, power, and influence of the USA so blythely misspent by the billowing buffoon who preceeded him.
Nobody is now wondering whether America is no longer a superpower or whether we have any clout. Just look at what we did today to the head of the Chemical Weapons Commission.
The very fact that we chose not to do anything about Venezuela is proof of our supreme confidence that we can do whatever we need to if it's important enough. Right now, Chavez is an irritant. Nothing more than that.
The United States has no business bringing down
the democratically elected government of any
country. That is lesson here and is shockingly
unaddressed in this article.
...First of all, he became a driving force in reviving OPEC and raising oil prices, something that was critical to his domestic agenda. U.S. leaders have always had mixed feelings about oil prices, since they hits U.S. trading partners harder than the United States itself. However, the problem with Chavez was that, in order to move OPEC forward, he had to work with representatives of countries that Washington didn't particularly like, such as Iraq, Iran and Libya... ...Now, it was unlikely that Chavez would want to disrupt the flow of oil exports -- he needed the cash as much as the United States needed the oil...
Interesting analysis, but based on a faulty presumption that it's in Venezuela's best interests to maintain OPEC export levels. The PVDSA economists determined that they should go for market share, that is, Venezuela would make more money opening up the pumps than restricting them. (Like Russia has been saying they will do.) There was an article (can't find) during the coup where a PVDSA leader said he would open the pumps and "no more oil for Cuba."
Who would be hurt by Venezuela's success? Why Iran, etc. They seem to have spent much effort propping up and encouraging Chavez. In return for chavez hurting his country he gets Cuban assistance, and Cuba and Iran are very cozy right now. Ali Rodriguez was a big pusher for OPEC restrictions. And now he's being appointed as the head of the PVDSA with the avowed purpose of keeping to limited exports. I would guess that this was Chavez' purpose in trying to upset the PVDSA board with "communist" appointees, which the PVDSA objected to some months ago, and Chavez relented. Now Chavez/Iran have the solution of appointing Rodriguez as head of the PVDSA, taking him out of his OPEC presidency. The cover story is that he is "experienced." So what, many are. The true purpose is to stop Venezuela from participating in a market share strategy - a strategy that would benefit it, but harm Iran and other OPEC states. Vicente Fox is probably happy about this too.
It's about money - who gets it, who doesn't - though playing up to Chavez' ego about being a world figure, etc. plays into it.
These phoney coups are one of the oldest tricks that the commies like Castro have used for decades. A phoney coup gets your opponents involved in the streets and thus setting themselves up for identification, arrest and death.
Your arrest or death is falsely proclaimed. Your opponents come out to celebrate and to make speeches. 48 hours later, you escape from the evil and dumb CIA! Then your army and secret police round up every opponent who reveal his/herself during the phoney coup!
This phoney coup came right out of Havana's Phoney Coups Inc..