When Venezuela’s socialist leader, Hugo Chávez, told United States President Barack Obama in April he wanted to be his friend, there appeared to be a decent chance he would tone down some of his fierce anti-American rhetoric.
But relations have taken a turn for the worse and the Venezuelan president is once again on the attack.
Chávez first accused Washington of backing the coup in Honduras against President Manuel Zelaya, his leftist ally, and then reacted angrily to a US Congress report that said corruption in his government had allowed a sharp rise in cocaine trafficking through Venezuela.
But Chávez was especially upset when Colombia said it planned to increase the number of US anti-narcotics operations in the country.
Chávez says all three events show that US hostilities toward Venezuela continue under Obama, and that the extra military help for Colombia’s conservative government is a threat to Venezuela and its neighbours in the Andean region.
”Obama’s mask is falling,” Chávez told national legislators on the weekend. ”The empire is still alive and kicking.”
Within days of Colombia’s announcement, Chávez, who has been in power for more than a decade, said he would buy more tanks from Russia and strengthen the air force and navy.
Relations have, however, still not dropped to the lows seen during the administration of George Bush, and some analysts say Chávez’s new bout of anti-American rhetoric does not mean he will consider interrupting Venezuela’s large supply of oil to the US or take any other serious measures.
”We need to pay less attention to what he says and more to what he does,” said Orlando Perez, professor of political science at Central Michigan University, who specialises in US-Latin American relations.
Obama has promised an overhaul of relations with Latin America, raising hopes that long-running tensions with a new bloc of leftist presidents led by Chávez would ease.
Venezuela and the US recently restored full diplomatic relations and left-wing governments from Cuba to Ecuador have eased their sharp criticism of US policies.
A lost opportunity
But new disputes with Venezuela could fuel even greater arms spending in the region and hinder rather than help cooperation in the fight against drug-trafficking.
”There’s a risk of losing an opportunity,” says Dan Hellinger, a professor of political science at Webster University, who has written extensively about Venezuela.
Venezuela’s government was furious over a report by the US Congress Government Accountability Office, which said Venezuela had a ”permissive” attitude toward drug-trafficking.
”This report tries to discredit and criminalise the Venezuelan government,” said Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela’s ambassador to Washington.
Chávez’s latest attack on the United States and Colombia may be an attempt to rally supporters behind the flag as weaker oil revenues put a strain on the economy, government finances and his approval ratings.
The former paratrooper’s popularity fell from 64% in February to 50%-54% percent earlier this month, according to polling firm Datanalisis.
Chávez is concerned his support in the National Assembly after elections next year could fall below the necessary two-thirds to approve key legislation, and has called on his government to pick up the pace of socialist reforms.
Still, critics say the Obama administration may be making a mistake in pushing for an increase in US troops in Colombia after it lost a military base in Ecuador. The move is seen by several countries in the region as threatening the balance of power.
”It’s a lack of sensitivity,” says Hellinger. ”They don’t really have their foreign policy team for Latin America in place yet and that’s the problem when you’re preoccupied with Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.”
Republican Senators unhappy with US policy on Honduras last week delayed the Senate foreign relations committee’s vote on the confirmation of Obama nominee Arturo Valenzuela as his top official for Latin America. — Reuters