Chavez under fire from international community

Chávez under fire from international community

By Benedict Mander in Caracas

The unfulfilled dream of Hugo Chávez’s idol, Venezuela’s 19th century independence hero Simon Bolivar, was to unify South America. But a heated exchange at a recent regional summit meeting – during which Venezuela’s leader told Alvaro Uribe, his Colombian counterpart, to “go to hell” – underlined how elusive this goal remains.

In recent days, Mr Chávez’s socialist government has come under heavy fire from the international community for allegedly assisting drug traffickers and violating human rights at home. Now it has been accused of co-operating with Spanish and Colombian insurgents on assassination plots.

Mr Chávez has rejected “unacceptable and politically-motivated accusations” made by a Spanish judge last week that it had collaborated with Basque separatist group Eta and Farc, the Colombian guerrillas, to assassinate top Colombian politicians including President Alvaro Uribe.

On the same day, Venezuelan security forces were singled out in the US State Department’s annual report on international drugs trafficking for “directly assisting” Colombian guerrillas linked to cocaine smuggling.

The previous week, the Organisation of American States released a scathing report accusing Venezuela’s government of undermining democracy and the rule of law through human rights abuses, political repression and eroding the separation of powers.

Venezuelan authorities brushed off the criticisms as part of a continued internationally co-ordinated smear campaign intended to discredit Mr Chávez’s “Bolivarian revolution”, long a fierce opponent of global capitalism and US imperialism.

“It’s been said that there are Hezbollah cells in Venezuela, practically that Bin Laden is in Venezuela – they also say that we are trying to build an atomic bomb with Iran. It’s laughable,” said Mr Chávez.

Mr Chávez described the OAS’s Inter-American Commission on Human Rights as a “mafia” and its leader as “pure excrement”. He also threatened to leave the OAS altogether, after the report detailed the firing of Venezuelan judges whose rulings were not to the government’s liking, the closure of critical media outlets and the obstruction of democratically-elected opposition politicians.

“Things aren’t looking too good for Chávez on the international scene,” said Mervin Rodriguez, head of international relations at the Central University of Venezuela, who said that the former tank commander is losing support and credibility abroad, with lower oil prices limiting his ability to spread influence. “Chávez has actively sought out enemies, and now that he is weaker comes the international counterattack – his enemies have been waiting for this moment,” he said.

Pro-government commentators have characterised the attacks as intended to weaken support for Mr Chávez ahead of key legislative elections in September, in which the opposition hopes to wrest a majority from the government that allows it to pass laws at will.

The criticisms come at a difficult time for Mr Chávez, who is already facing a series of complicated domestic challenges, including persistently high inflation and violent crime, as well as serious water and electricity shortages causing continuous blackouts.

“I wish Chávez would spend a bit more time dealing with problems at home, rather than wasting time and money abroad which don’t make much difference to me,” said Sergio Romero, a bus driver from Caracas, the capital.

The array of challenges facing Mr Chávez on the home front are chipping away at his popularity, and seven ministers have quit or been fired in recent weeks. Also, one of the most high-profile and successful pro-government politicians, Henri Falcon, governor of Lara state, recently resigned from Mr Chávez’s United Socialist party, signalling growing dissent and disappointment among the “chavista” ranks, say analysts.

The latest accusations will also pose a challenge for both Spain and Colombia, two of Venezuela’s top trade partners.

Colombia in particular has been seeking to defuse a tense standoff, in hope of reinstating former trade relations, which reached $7bn in annual bilateral trade until Mr Chávez froze economic and diplomatic ties last year in protest at Colombia’s deal to allow US troops greater access to its military bases. Colombia has also offered to export electricity to alleviate Venezuela’s energy crisis.

Meanwhile, Spain’s relations with Venezuela have constituted a delicate balancing act, with major commercial interests to protect such as Telefonica and Repsol, which recently won a major contract to develop a block in the oil-rich Orinoco belt. Although bilateral relations have improved since the arrival of leftist Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, they were put to the test when Mr Chávez nationalised the Venezuelan franchise of Banco Santander, and when King Juan Carlos once told Mr Chávez to “shut up” after interrupting Mr Zapatero at a summit meeting.

Mr Zapatero ordered his foreign ministry to “request an explanation” from Venezuela after a Spanish national court judge announced indictments for 13 Farc and Eta suspects accused of conspiracy to commit murder and terrorism and that had alleged ties with the Venezuelan government.

Venezuela rejected the accusations as “tendentious and baseless”, arguing that they were based on information taken from files allegedly found on a laptop seized from a Farc leader killed during a Colombian military air strike on a rebel camp in Ecuador in 2008.