Venezuelan prez resists U.S. pressure
Chavez defies sanctions on Iraq
By Andy McInerney
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez delivered a diplomatic
body blow to U.S. efforts to isolate and economically
strangle Iraq on Aug. 10. Chavez crossed the Iran-Iraq border
to meet with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein--the first
meeting between Hussein and a foreign head of state since the
1991 U.S.-led war against Iraq.
The meeting was held as part of Chavez' 10-nation tour to
meet with members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries. But it had special importance because of
Washington's efforts to isolate Iraq, including the 10-year
policy of economic sanctions that has caused over 1.5 million
deaths.
U.S. officials fumed about the visit. State Department
spokesperson Richard Boucher called it "particularly
galling." The trip "bestows an aura of respectability on
Saddam Hussein," he whined.
Britain, an imperialist junior partner in the U.S.-led
campaign against Iraq, lodged a diplomatic protest with the
Venezuelan government in Caracas. The British Foreign Office
called the visit "inappropriate."
But unlike the leaders of most other countries in the
capitalist world, Chavez refused to back down.
"We regret and denounce the interference in our internal
affairs," Chavez said. "We do not and will not accept it.
"What can I do if they get upset?" he continued. "We have
dignity and Venezuela is a sovereign country."
In addition to discussions on maintaining oil price levels
to near $25 per barrel, the Venezuelan delegation made a
special point of criticizing the U.S. sanctions against
Iraq.
"President Chavez affirmed the Venezuelan position
supporting an accord against any kind of boycott or sanctions
that are applied against Iraq or any other country in the
world," said Deputy Foreign Minister Jorge Valero.
After leaving Iraq, Chavez took the case of Iraq to
Indonesia, another OPEC member. Chavez and Indonesian
President Abdurram Wahid issued a joint statement opposing
U.S. sanctions in Iraq.
"We share the sentiments of President Chavez with regard
to the Iraqi people," Wahid said on Aug. 12. "For that reason
Indonesia hopes for lifting the blockade of Iraq soon."
Defiance reflects mass support
Venezuela is currently the leading oil exporter to the
United States. Normally a country of such importance would be
held under the thumb of U.S. imperialism through client
regimes and economic pressure.
But in 1998, seething discontent from Venezuela's 23
million people rocketed Chavez to the presidency, breaking
the grip of Venezuela's notoriously corrupt traditional
political parties. Chavez had led a 1992 military rebellion
against the government in support of popular demonstrations
against poverty and austerity.
On July 30, Chavez was enthusiastically re-elected in a
special election called to "re-legitimize" his government.
His Fifth Republic Movement and allies in the Patriotic Pole
won 60 percent of the seats in the new legislative body.
Expectations are high that Chavez will confront the
country's mass poverty--afflicting nearly 80 percent of the
population--and unemployment. Chavez is promising a
"revolution" to shake up the traditional ruling elite.
In the international arena, Chavez has already defied the
United States by refusing to allow U.S. military planes to
fly over Venezuela in operations directed at neighboring
Colombia. He has embraced Cuban President Fidel Castro as a
"brother." Visiting Beijing in 1999, he encouraged the
Chinese government to "continue to fly its standard so that
the world would not be run by a universal police that imposes
everything."
He has advocated cooperation of exploited nations against
U.S. hegemony. "We, the small, poor nations, underdeveloped,
of the Third World ... we have no alternative but to unite,
whatever our geographic location," Chavez said on Aug. 6,
before leaving on his tour of OPEC nations.
The social ferment throughout Latin America--from the
Chavez government to the revolutionary movement in
Colombia--is beginning to be felt on the international
arena.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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