The Sun-Sentinel.
Tuesday, December 12, 2000.
Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's coup-plotter-turned-president, seems
determined to make himself the Fidel Castro of the 21st century. He delivers
incendiary speeches denouncing Washington and has positioned himself as an
anti-U.S. icon not just in his country but throughout Latin America.
Earlier, Chavez's provocations could have been dismissed as mere
rhetoric. Recently, however, there have been angry exchanges between Chavez and
Colombian officials over the Venezuelan's flirtation with Colombian guerrillas.
U.S. State Department officials have been quoted as saying there are "indications
of Chavez government support" for violent indigenous movements in Bolivia
and for rebellious army officers in Ecuador as well. Embattled Colombia brought
its ambassador home briefly "for consultations." Bolivian President
Hugo Banzer reportedly has approached Chavez to express concern about his "intrusion
in the internal affairs" of the Andean country.
Chavez has long been considered a controversial player in Latin
American diplomacy, but his recent adventures are drawing fretful attention from
Washington and other hemispheric powers. For his part, Chavez denies any
involvement with violent groups and insists that reports to the contrary are
part of a "savage, gross and aggressive campaign."
Meanwhile, the caudillo disdains political convention. In his two years
in power, the 45-year-old Chavez, a popular military leader before turning to
politics, has led a series of successful efforts to change the country's
constitution to empower himself even further. Instead of being limited to a
five-year term, Chavez, through various political juggling acts, now can rule
Venezuela as president for 13 consecutive years.
His preoccupation with these machinations and other political intrigues
has damaged the Venezuelan economy. The oil-rich country is approaching free
fall; capital flight has reached dangerous levels, estimated at $8 billion in
the last two years alone.
If there is anything positive in this turn of events it is that no
powerful nations are seeking to bankroll the Venezuelan strongman as the Soviet
Union did Cuba's Castro for so many dangerous years. Chavez lacks the influence
the Communist leader had at his peak, but he seems certain to be an irritant for
his regional neighbors, not to mention the next U.S. president.
Copyright 2000 Los Angeles Times |