Fidel’s Heir -- The Rising Influence Of Hugo Chávez

Hugo Chavez Addressing A Crowd

From the New Yorker:

A few years ago, when Hugo Chávez, the President of Venezuela, said that he wanted a new jet to replace the nearly thirty-year-old Boeing bequeathed to him by his predecessor, his critics raised an outcry. But Chávez went ahead with his plans. His new plane, which cost sixty-five million dollars, is a gleaming white Airbus A-319, with a white leather interior, seating for sixty passengers, and a private compartment. The folding seat-back trays have gold-colored hinges, and there is plenty of legroom.

Chávez has spent more than a year altogether on trips abroad since taking office, in February, 1999, and so the jet is a kind of second home. His seat bears an embossed leather Presidential seal. Paintings of nineteenth-century Latin-American independence heroes hang on the walls, including a prominent one of Simón Bolívar, known as El Libertador. Bolívar led military campaigns to free large parts of South America from Spanish rule, and in 1819 he helped create a vast nation called Gran Colombia, which encompassed the present-day republics of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama. But political rivalries and internecine warfare frustrated Bolívar’s dream of a United States of South America, and Gran Colombia fell apart soon after his death, in 1830.

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My Comment: This article not only provides an excellent examination of the history of Venezuela and Hugo Chavez, but it also gives an insight on what are the strategic and geopolitical goals for Chavez. In a nutshell ... Hugo Chavez admires the ideas of Simon Bolivar and his vision of a United Gran Colombia. But like Bolivar, Hugo Chavez faces the same problems that he did. Latin America is not a distinct people, but a region made up of multiple ethnic and cultural groups. Because of history .... these groups do not trust each other .... and are in fact in constant competition with each other.

Hugo Chavez's embrace of socialism .... the concept of a common man that I will admit is very seductive to the intellectuals and internationalist of the region .... has become Chavez's philosophy. But like all past socialist leaders and governments, it cannot compete with the cultural, religious, and ethnic pressures that are always present. When the leader and his gang are gone .... the state always collapses.

Hugo Chavez will be the leader of Venezuela until he dies. Our best policy towards him is to leave him alone, but warn him on the consequences if he should meddle in other countries affairs. But I personally feel that if he does interfere in other countries, people in these other countries will react negatively towards him and his supporters.

Hugo Chavez is Latin America's problem, not ours. They will deal with him over time.