El Comandante

Jul
13
2012
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In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 7/13/12

20120707 4688071w In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 7/13/12

Courtesy of: EFE

Five months after the return of his cancer, President Hugo Chávez has declared himself “free of cancer” for the second time; despite Chávez’s assertion, discussions continue about his possible successors, should he die of the disease; facing a strong opposition candidate, he is hitting the campaign trail, trying to show voters that he has recovered from his illness. Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles’ campaign event was blocked by police who prevented him from entering a Caracas neighborhood, leading to violence; Chávez’s allies supported the block, telling Capriles not to campaign in chavista strongholds; critics say the police blockade just another contradiction in the democratic politics that Chávez espouses. Meanwhile, the continued insecurity problem could, in fact, be Chávez’s downfall; Chávez requests more debt to continue his increased election-year spending on social programs; China makes more moves into the Venezuelan economy; and Chávez continues trade with Syria despite international sanctions.

Venezuela’s Chavez says “totally free” of cancer, again, Chicago Tribune

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Monday declared himself fully recovered from cancer and ready to return to the streets for his re-election campaign ahead of an October vote.

Venezuela Begins Debate On Future Without Chavez, NPR

In Venezuela, people are beginning to talk about what was once unthinkable: Just who could succeed the all-powerful President Hugo Chavez?

Chavez Hits Campaign Trail in Bid to Prove He’s Cancer-Free, Bloomberg

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez is hitting the campaign trail today in an attempt to persuade voters his battle with cancer hasn’t diminished his vitality ahead of what’s shaping up to be his toughest election.

Rival supporters clash in Venezuela election campaign, Reuters

Police moved into a Caracas slum on Saturday to separate rival supporters of President Hugo Chavez and opposition candidate Henrique Capriles during the latest flare-up of Venezuela’s volatile election campaign.

Chavez Allies: Rivals Should Not Campaign in Slums, ABCNews

Allies of Hugo Chavez said Sunday that opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles is trying to provoke violence by campaigning in areas that have been bastions of support for Venezuela’s leader.

The Contradictions of Chávez’s Politics, International Herald Tribune

It’s election season in Venezuela: on Oct. 7, Hugo Chávez faces his most serious test at the polls in almost 14 years in office.

Will Venezuela’s violence undo Chávez, or save him?, Christian Science Monitor

Violence is becoming a focal point for Venezuela’s upcoming presidential elections, with the government and opposition competing to promise security to voters, amid warnings that a defeat for President Chávez could unleash fresh conflict.

Venezuela’s Chavez Requests Additional Debt For State Benefits, Wall Street Journal

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez will petition the national legislature to raise an additional 30 billion bolivars via debt, a 36% increase to the budgeted allowance for the year, to finance state benefits for public workers and impoverished seniors, officials said Tuesday.

Chavez: stepping up the handouts, BeyondBrics

Maybe you can’t buy love, but you can sure buy votes – or at the very least try to, which is what it looks like Hugo Chávez is doing by pouring billions into a new pension programme less than 100 days before presidential elections are due.

China plays increasing role in Venezuela’s economy Miami Herald

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s socialist revolution, which has seized billions of dollars in assets from western oil companies in the name of national sovereignty, is gradually giving control of its industry to China, a country that plays an increasingly dominating role in decisions about development in the country.

To Power Syria, Chávez Sends Diesel, The Wall Street Journal

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his state-oil company are providing vital energy support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and conducting business with Syrian firms blacklisted by Washington and Brussels, according to documents relating to the deals.

 
Jul
12
2012
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Hugo Chávez, golpista

jose r cardenas Hugo Chávez, golpista

José R. Cárdenas

José R. Cárdenas served in several foreign policy positions during the George W. Bush administration (2004-2009), including on the National Security Council staff. He is a consultant with Vision Americas in Washington, DC.

Hugo Chávez’s penchant for labeling anyone who disagrees with him a “golpista” (coup-mongerer) is well-established. This, despite his own history of leading an ill-fated military coup in 1992 against former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Pérez. But it seems the years since haven’t diminished his ardor for military coups when it suits his purposes — a fact affirmed by recent events in Paraguay.

Paraguay recently saw the sudden impeachment of President Fernando Lugo for “poor performance.” Whatever one thinks of that drastic action, it happened to be consistent with the country’s constitution.

Yet events in Paraguay apparently didn’t pass muster with Hugo Chávez, who ordered his foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro to meet with Paraguay’s military leadership to try and convince them to intervene and forcibly restore President Lugo to office. (In this effort, Maduro, who was in the country as part of a Unasur delegation monitoring the impeachment, was accompanied by Ecuador’s ambassador to Paraguay, who represents another government that routinely identifies opposition as golpistas.)

Infuriated by the meeting, the Paraguayan government withdrew its ambassador from Caracas, citing “the grave evidence of intervention by Venezuelan officials in the internal affairs of Paraguay.” It also ordered a shake-up of the military brass, with new President Federico Franco stating, “We will not tolerate military officers who want to become insubordinate or accept the recommendations of foreign countries.”

On a continent with a long, tortuous history of military involvement in politics, Paraguay stands out. It was not until 1989 that the 35-year reign of General Alfredo Stroessner ended. As a result, there is great sensitivity towards the matter in the country and is why a senior foreign official meeting with the military to encourage their intervention in Paraguayan politics constitutes an outrageously reckless act that threatens not only the internal stability of the country, but has wider regional implications as well.

Yet not only has the regional silence been deafening on Maduro’s meeting, but countries like Brazil and Argentina turned around and effectively rewarded Chávez by granting Venezuela full-membership in Mercosur, the political and economic pact among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. This fulfilled a key foreign policy objective of Chávez for years that had previously been blocked, ironically, by the Paraguayan Congress. But with Paraguay suspended from the customs union because of the Lugo impeachment, Brazil and Argentina moved instantly to grant Chávez membership. It’s not that Mercosur will bring Venezuela any measurable economic benefits, but to Chávez it is one more key symbol of the legitimacy of his political project and one more instance of Venezuela’s integration with Latin American countries in a union that excludes the United States.

As Brazilian diplomat and former Mercosur representative José Botafogo Goncalves told the Brazilian newspaper O Globo, “Venezuela doesn’t meet the basic requirements to enter Mercosur. Venezuela’s problem is Chávez, who doesn’t like free trade and wants to transform the bloc into a political platform.”

But degrading their own multilateral institutions is one thing; Chávez’s encouraging a military coup in Paraguay is quite another. Lamentably, the continued regional indulgence of Hugo Chávez’s provocations appears to know no bounds. Apparently, there is no action he can take, no matter how reckless or interventionist, that will bring rebuke. Instead, he is rewarded. It is indeed a sad commentary on the current state of Latin American regional leadership.

 
Jul
11
2012
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ICYMI: Venezuela Begins Debate On Future Without Chavez (with audio)

NPR
July 11, 2012
By Juan Forero

chavez3 wide ICYMI: Venezuela Begins Debate On Future Without Chavez (with audio)

Courtesy of: Reuters / Landov

In Venezuela, people are beginning to talk about what was once unthinkable: Just who could succeed the all-powerful President Hugo Chavez?

He has been battling cancer, which for much of this year forced him to suspend his once-frequent TV appearances. On Monday, Chavez declared himself free of the cancer, though it’s not the first time he’s said he was cured.

For 13 years, he has consolidated his hold on power while nationalizing farmland and seizing private companies. And now, despite his infrequent appearances, he remains a political force.

The charismatic populist has lately been projecting that image in fiery speeches ahead of the Oct. 7 presidential election. Chavez is seeking a fourth term even though he has told Venezuelans that he has had three surgeries to remove a tumor.

The cancer treatments have sidelined him for much of the year and sparked speculation that he could die. Aside from Chavez’s own declarations, the details of his condition remain a state secret.

But at meetings of the movements that make up Chavez’s coalition, there’s discussion of how the president’s so-called socialist revolution may have to go on without him.

One of those movements, Venezuelan Revolutionary Currents, is led by Ramses Reyes. He says socialism in Venezuela won’t end if Chavez is no longer here; it will continue to expand.

Politics professor Luis Alberto Butto says that kind of debate is going on throughout the government’s power structure. Obviously Chavez’s socialist party needs to consider all possible scenarios that may take place in the short to long term, he says.

Butto adds that if Chavez is forced to drop out before the election, his party would have to choose a successor to run in his place. A six-year term is at stake.

And if Chavez runs and wins, and then dies in the first four years of the new term, new elections would have to be called.

The opposition challenger in the October election, Henrique Capriles, says he wants Chavez to run so he can beat him and overturn his socialist revolution.

We want him to have a long life, Capriles told supporters recently, so he can see the Venezuela of progress that we’ll build.

Possible Successors

But if Chavez is forced out by his illness, three aides have emerged as possible successors. They are loyalists who’ve increasingly been seen inaugurating public projects on state TV or accompanying Chavez during his ordeal.

Diosdado Cabello, the president of Congress, is one of them. In 2002, he worked to ensure Chavez’s return after coup plotters briefly ousted the president and read aloud a televised proclamation taking power.

Others who’ve been increasingly visible include Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro and Vice President Elias Jaua.

There’s yet another possible scenario. Chavez could go with his brother and confidant, Adan. He’s close to Cuba’s communist government, which supports Chavez. He also introduced a young Chavez to radical political thought.

And then there’s Rosa Virginia, one of Chavez’s daughters. She doesn’t have an official job, but in clips from state TV, she’s shown at her father’s side on his trips to Cuba for cancer treatments, listening silently as he talks to the cameras.

Eduardo Semtei, who helped take Chavez to power in the 1990s, believes the president will want someone with his last name in the presidential palace.

Semtei says history shows that all-powerful leaders like Chavez often turn to family in time of crisis.

Listen to the audio from NPR’s Morning Edition below:

To read this article on NPR, please click here.