Venezuela’s Would-Be Castro

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.