[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 92 (Thursday, June 28, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1239-E1240]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   PROSPECTS FOR UNITED STATES-VENEZUELAN RELATIONS IN THE CHAVEZ ERA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 28, 2001

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, United States-Venezuelan relations recently 
have become a matter of concern on the current administration's Latin 
American foreign policy agenda due to some provocative statements made 
by President Hugo Chavez. The United States imports 14 percent of its 
oil from Venezuela, and with President Chavez being driven by his 
concern over maximizing profits to help serve one of his own policy 
goals of creating a ``Latin American Union,'' the United States has 
possible cause for worry that what may be good for Venezuela may not be 
good for American interests.
  Chavez also has visited recently with Saddam Hussein and Fidel 
Castro, criticized Plan Colombia and denounced Washington's $1.3 
billion funding of it, which has heightened Washington's edginess over 
the new status quo. But all of us must keep in mind that it is all but 
certain that the Venezuelan president's vision for a more unified Latin 
America will not disappear, and is shared by millions of other Latin 
Americans.
  It is clear that patience is being called for as well as a sense of 
proportionality. After all, Chavez, at the present time, poses no 
danger to vital United States interests, and we risk destructive 
backlash from Latin America if the United States acts too harshly 
against the Venezuelan leader. Moreover, many of his condemnations of 
the development model are also being echoed by dissident IMF and World 
Bank officials.
  The following research memorandum was authored by Pamela Spivack and 
Jill Freeman, Research Associates with the Washington-based Council of 
Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), an organization that has been long 
committed to addressing issues associated with democracy and human 
rights throughout the Hemisphere. COHA's researchers have often spoken 
out about controversial United States policies towards Latin American 
countries, and we have all benefited over the years from such insights. 
The attached article, which will appear in this organization's 
estimable biweekly publication, The Washington Report on the 
Hemisphere, addresses United States-Venezuelan relations and how 
Chavez's rhetoric has worried and concerned Washington. The article 
also points out that these alienating attitudes toward the United 
States as well as Venezuela's status as the world's third largest oil 
exporter are potential causes for the United States to reexamine its 
benign policies toward Caracas, emphasizing that caution and moderation 
are now required.

     [From the Washington Report on the Hemisphere, June 25, 2001]

 Capital Watch: Prospects for U.S.-Venezuelan Relations in the Chavez 
                                  era

       As concern grows in Washington over President Hugo Chavez's 
     domestic and foreign policy moves, relations with Caracas 
     could soon being to seriously erode. Chavez's leftist 
     Bolivarian rhetoric, his opposition to U.S. antidrug 
     initiatives in Colombia, his close friendship with Fidel 
     Castro, as well as the country's status as a major supplier 
     of petroleum to the U.S., may persuade the administration to 
     reexamine its relatively docile policies towards Venezuela.
       The hero of the country's poor, his constituency carried 
     him to an overwhelming victory first in 1998, and then again 
     in 2000. Chavez speaks about integrating the continent, 
     including the military, which is of great importance for both 
     the goals of justice and the ability to combat external 
     imperialist measures. Meanwhile, the Bush administration's 
     fears that the strong man will need to be cut down are 
     growing. Although the State Department's Peter Romero blasted 
     Chavez's support of Colombia's leftist guerrillas in front of 
     a Miami-Cuban audience, Washington's fears had remained 
     latent, far down on its hemispheric agenda. This benign 
     stance was due to the Clinton administration's ``positive 
     engagement'' policy, geared to facilitate equitable ties with 
     the rest of the region. However, there is speculation that 
     Bush may more intensely monitor Caracas' political and 
     economic actions in an effort to block Chavez's ``Latin 
     American Union'' from coming to fruition.


                  Dissemination of Venezuelan rhetoric

       To the consternation of Washington policymakers, specific 
     events have highlighted Chavez's efforts to export his 
     peaceful revolution to neighboring countries. He has roundly 
     criticized Plan Colombia, a massive U.S. military-driven 
     scenario aimed at interdicting and destroying the drug 
     cartels. He recently denounced Washington's $1.3 billion 
     funding of it as well as its components, such as intensified 
     training of the military and Bogota's growing deployment of 
     offensive helicopters, as a dangerous intervention that will 
     not be successful. At a news conference at the U.N. 
     Millennium Summit, September 2000, Chavez emphasized, ``The 
     only solution for Colombia is peace. Sending helicopter 
     gunships to
       Colombia is not the only regional country of interest to 
     the Venezuelan leader. According to El Pais of Spain, there 
     is evidence that Caracas has supported radicalized indigenous 
     movements in Bolivia to demonstrate the solidarity of like-
     minded movements. At the Ibero-American Summit in Panama, 
     2000, Bolivian president Hugo Banzer exhibited some animosity 
     towards Chavez for his alleged support of such movements. As 
     has been noted in the Miami Herald, Chavez also has been 
     accused of supplying equipment to the indigenous and military 
     figures who later staged a coup in Ecuador. The paper 
     implicated the Venezuelan leader in the delivery of over 
     $500,000 to Colonel Lucio Gutierrez, who overthrew the 
     Ecuadorian government of Jamil Mahuad. In his failed coup 
     attempt in 1992, Gutierrez adopted a populist slogan much 
     like Chavez's own. The presence of such marrings on Chavez's 
     hemisphere report card has been troubling to Washington.


                       Threats to U.S. interests

       Chavez's recent association with such U.S. ``enemies'' as 
     Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro, has heightened the State 
     Department's anxiety over his intentions. In particular, his 
     evolving friendship with Castro puts the U.S. in a quandary, 
     given that Venezuela is the third largest foreign supplier of 
     crude oil to this country. Chavez flouted U.S. efforts to 
     isolate Havana in devising a five-year deal with the Cuban 
     leader to provide the island with oil to compensate for 
     Cuba's lost Soviet aid. Venezuela will supply Cuba with 
     53,000

[[Page E1240]]

     barrels of oil a day, at an annual market price of $3 
     billion. By granting cheap credits and a barter system, the 
     cost to Cuba will be substantially less. Increased oil 
     revenues from growing U.S. imports that fill Chavez's coffers 
     ironically help to subsidize Cuba's own consumption. Before 
     his visit to Cuba, Chavez suggested, ``We have no choice but 
     to form an `axis of power,'' challenging U.S.-hemispheric 
     dominance. Chavez's declared objective is to generate good 
     will for Venezuela throughout the region by offering similar 
     preferential oil deals to many other Caribbean countries.
       Despite climbing oil prices in the past two
       Chavez also expanded his presidential powers to undermine 
     the independent power of the judiciary, legislature, media 
     and civic offices, all of which were known for their 
     corruption under previous regimes. Up to this point, 
     Washington has restrained itself, implicitly adjusting to 
     Chavez's style of rule, a difficult position to maintain in 
     light of the growing tempo of his socialist rhetoric and 
     recent controversial policy proposals.


                         Potential U.S. action

       While the Clinton administration overlooked Chavez's 
     political maneuvers in Latin America to maintain a semblance 
     of amicable relations, some of his outcries evoked the wrath 
     of Cuban-Americans wishing to punish him for pro-Castro 
     activism. This is likely to build up the pressure on the Bush 
     administration to ``get tough on Chavez.'' Observers in 
     Caracas assert that he has never concealed his goal of a 
     unified Latin America distanced from Washington. It is 
     doubtful whether a tougher response form Washington would 
     hinder Chavez's defense of such a union. Former State 
     Department official, Bernard Aronson, is already claiming 
     that any disruption of oil agreements with Venezuela could 
     weaken the U.S. economy. Due to economic difficulties and 
     heightened crime, Chavez's promises of jobs and increased 
     security have had to be delayed. However, it is important to 
     note that he has been in office a relatively short period, 
     and appears to have factored in U.S. scorn while seeking his 
     public sector reforms. Whether Washington can long maintain 
     its positive engagement policy towards Chavez's actions 
     remains to be seen, but it is a certainty that he will 
     continue to champion his messianic vision for Venezuela and 
     Latin America.

     

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