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January 31, 2005

Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez is a rock star to the fifteen thousand socialists and Leftists gathered in the alternative world economic forum being held at Porto Alegre, Brazil, this week. The AP describes the affection which the 'activists' have for Chavez: "American Mike Fox, of San Francisco's Global Exchange human rights group, said Chavez has become the model leftist leader in Latin America."

And what is this very model of a modern Marxist colonel doing to earn his credibility with the anti-globos? The New York Times explains the first stage is an agrarian "reform" movement which seeks to divest the wealthy and the foreign of their landholdings (like practically all countries, most of Venezuela's land, and nearly all of its best, is in the hands of tiny, hotly resented elite). If this program were being carried out in, say, Britain or some other country with a long-established rule of law, the program would be on balance admirable. But Venezuela lacks that long-established legal tradition, and its government is without even the most basic tools of statecraft--Caracas doesn't even know how much arable land the country has, nor does it have a land title registry.

Phase two is more interesting. It is at once superficially more threatening to the U.S. while being more of a symbolic gesture. Financial Times writes that Iran will join Venezuela and China in a tripartite alliance to divert more of Venezuela's oil from U.S. markets to the Central Kingdom, which needs ever-more oil (and which has been inking deals like crazy to develop oil and gas reserves). Iran will provide technical expertise in how to market Venezuela's oil--most of which heretofore has gone to the U.S.--on the world stage. One Texas-based firm has been told to cease its exploration in Venezuela.

In a separate FT article, though, the newspaper analyzes Chavez's actions. His goal may be to undercut the U.S.'s position, the newspaper concludes, but the tactics he's chosen are unsustainable. Selling oil to China, for instance, sounds like a good idea--except that Venezuelan oil is too heavy to be refined in China right now, and the vast distances involved in shipping the oil means that the Chavez government is essentially subsidising Beijing's purchase. (The FT predicts Beijing will resell the oil on the world market for a small profit.) Chavez will persist as long as possible: "'The reason for the dispatch of these cargos is 100 per cent political,' said a trader familiar with the deals." Chavez thinks the U.S. is an empire bent on extracting as much wealth as possible from Latin America, and so he's positioning his country to stand with all the anti-Americna powers he can find.

So that is what the modern leftist Latin leader does these days: Cut off his nose to spite his face.

Posted by Paul Musgrave at January 31, 2005 08:42 AM

Comments

Posted by: Joel Thomas at January 31, 2005 10:37 AM | permalink

Posted by: Nick at January 31, 2005 11:51 AM | permalink

Posted by: Paul at January 31, 2005 12:10 PM | permalink