Stuart Munckton
The Venezuelan government has "unexpectedly" ended a 35-year-long military exchange program with the United States. Associated Press reported on April 22 that it had been told by an anonymous official from the US embassy in Caracas that the US military was "basically told to leave the Venezuelan military institutions and bases where they were". The official said there were four US military instructors working with the Venezuelan military and around 90 Venezuelan military personnel in the US.
In an official statement, the US embassy claimed that no explanation had been given by Venezuela for the termination of the program. However, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez publicly announced the suspension of the program on his weekly Alo Presidente television program on April 24. The Venezuela Analysis website reported on April 25 that Chavez had accused the US military personnel of "waging a campaign in the Venezuelan military" against his government. Referring to the US military office in Fort Tiuna, one of Venezuela's most important bases, Chavez said it was "an organ of the CIA ... conspiring against the government".
Washington has been hostile to Chavez's government since his election as Venezuelan president in 1998, and openly backed a military coup that overthrew him for 48 hours in April 2002 — before a popular uprising restored Chavez to power.
Chavez is an outspoken opponent of US imperialism. In recent months, US officials have unleashed a barrage of threatening statements against Venezuela, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice setting the tone in January by labelling Venezuela a "negative force" in the region. The Venezuelan government accused the US of preparing a "new aggression" against Venezuela.
On his TV show, Chavez repeated the possible scenario of a US invasion of Venezuela, revealing that a US marine was caught taking photos of a Venezuelan army base. "If she or any other US official does this kind of activity again, they will be imprisoned and face trial in Venezuela", Chavez declared.
The suspension of the military cooperation agreement came just days before Rice embarked on a five-day visit to four Latin American counties with the stated aim of attempting to isolate Venezuela. On April 2, Venezuelan information minister Andres Izarra predicted she would fail, saying that "we are no longer the backyard of the US".
An indication of US plans was revealed in an April 26 New York Times article entitled "US Considers Toughening Stance Towards Chavez". The article reported that according to unnamed US officials a new "multi-agency taskforce" was working on a new, harder line approach to the Chavez government.
As well as more pressure on other Latin American nations to isolate Venezuela, the US was likely to funnel more money to opposition groups inside Venezuela working to overthrow the government. The NYT quoted an unnamed "high-ranking Republican aide on Capitol Hill who works on Latin American policy" who told the paper: "What's happening here is [US officials] realise this thing is deteriorating rapidly and it's going to require some more attention." The aide pointed out that the US was not in a position to ignore the Chavez government because "[Chavez is] sitting on an energy source that is critical to us". Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporter and supplies the US with around 15% of its oil imports.
However, the NYT reported that the US "has found no allies so far in its attempts to isolate the Venezuelan leader, and it has grown more and more frustrated by Mr Chavez's strident anti-American outbursts and policies that seem intended to fly in the face of Washington". According to the report, many Latin American leaders "do not want to antagonize their own leftist constituencies, who are partial to Mr Chavez". This is an acknowledgment of the popularity of the Chavez government among the worker and peasant masses on the continent due both to Chavez's willingness to stand up to the US and his government's anti-capitalist policies.
The NYT quoted Venezuelan foreign affairs vice minister Mari Pili Hernandez as saying that there "is one condition for us to have healthy relations with the United States. It's called respect."
From Green Left Weekly, May 4, 2005.
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