The State Department and Chavez

The Undersecretary of State for Interamerican Affairs, Dr. Thomas Shannon, once again expressed a positive attitude towards President Hugo Chavez by talking about the possibility of strengthening relations between Venezuela and the US. Shannon optimistically offered Chavez cooperation between the two countries on drug-traffic control.

This generous offer came after John Walters, Director of The National Drug Control Policy Office, pointed out that Chavez was becoming a major facilitator of cocaine trafficking to Europe and other parts of the hemisphere. To add to this, former US Ambassador to Colombia, Myles Frechette reported that the US government has clear evidence, based on information provided by radar technology that airplanes loaded with heroine depart from Venezuela to the United States and other parts of the world.  Frechette added that this is a fact and there is no basis to dispute it. Moreover, Frechette added that the US Administration has known about this activity for years.

Interestingly enough, this information came out days after the liberation of the hostages by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) which confirmed the complicity between Hugo Chavez and the FARC. This complicity was made clearer when Chavez appealed to the international community to remove the FARC from the international list of terrorist organizations. It is also a well-known fact that the FARC is linked to drug-trafficking cartels. In addition, Shannon’s statements came days after Chavez denounced Uribe as being a mafia gangster and after accusing Bogotá and Washington of trying to launch a war between Colombia and Venezuela.

As Chavez’s hostility continued, Shannon made a second conciliatory statement by ruling out the possibility that a war between Colombia and Venezuela could ever happen. Moreover, Shannon expressed his desire to get closer to Hugo Chavez and pointed out that the "relationship between Colombia and Venezuela is so deep that they will find a way to offset their differences". This was a curious remark given Chavez’s open hostility to "Plan Colombia" (aimed at combating drug-trafficking) and to President Alvaro Uribe whom Chavez sees as a puppet of the American empire. These statements also came just one day before Secretary Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Colombia to garner support for the yet to be ratified free trade agreement between the US and Colombia. One has to wonder what has prompted Mr. Shannon in his now conciliatory stance towards the Venezuelan president.

The undersecretary first offered Chavez cooperation on matters related to drug trafficking when Chavez himself has provided more than enough evidence of his involvement in drug trafficking. Indeed, Chavez has facilitated the trans-shipment of drugs through Venezuelan territory and airports as well as openly supporting commercialization of coca (as in Bolivia where President Evo Morales is a close Chavez ally).

However, this is not the end of Shannon’s poor judgment. He speaks loudly of cooperating with Hugo Chavez and has expressed confidence in the possibility of accommodation with him at the same time when Chavez is suffering political serious setbacks at home.

Chavez’s agenda was defeated in a December 2nd referendum that would have approved a constitutional reform that –among other things-would have virtually given Chavez unlimited powers. The meaning of that defeat is manifold. On the one hand, these elections delivered a leader long awaited by millions of Venezuelans in a political situation where the opposition had been weak and highly ineffective. That leader was General Raul Baduel, a former Secretary of Defense and former Chief of staff of the Venezuelan Armed Forces who not only denounced Chavez’ authoritarian project but also encouraged an intimidated Venezuelan population to vote against Chavez. That defeat generated a momentum that the state department bureaucracy failed to understand. Also, last week political parties and groups from the opposition announced a proposal that would unite all of them in a common front to defeat Chavez in the October 2008 regional and municipal elections.   The object of that unity is to create a democratic alternative to Chavez’s authoritarian rule. The groups and parties that are part of this front include old and new parties, liberal, centrists and socialists. They are all united with the purpose of striking a second electoral blow to Hugo Chavez.

General Baduel has issued a number of statements publicly contradicting Hugo Chavez in a heroic attitude of defiance. First, he stated publicly that the armed forces of Venezuela were confused over the apparent support of Chavez to the FARC and the use of Venezuelan territory by the group. Baduel stated- after meeting with top army officers- that the army understands that the FARC is a guerilla group and as such should not be allowed to operate on Venezuelan territory. Baduel also criticized Chavez’s direct contact with the FARC during the hostage crisis, because the Venezuelan President tried to act on his own by bypassing the authority of the Colombian president. In addition, Late last week Baduel publicly called on the Colombian government to ignore Chavez’s statements, according to which the US and Colombia are trying to cause a war between Venezuela and Colombia. Moreover, Baduel courageously accused Chavez of trying to draw public political support by staging a hypothetical external threat and thus "appealing to a despaired nationalism at a time when the people are beginning to sense an internal crisis".  This was a brave act of public criticism by Baduel which should have elicited another kind of reaction. Instead, Shannon and the State Department bureaucracy totally failed to understand the momentum that the December 2nd referendum generated and thus appeared to be among Chavez’s few friends.

But Chavez has already rejected Shannon’s offers to hold a dialogue, which comes as a slap in the face to the State Department. It seems that the US foreign policy establishment has failed to understand that the Chavez’ regime is oppressing its citizens, its media, its private sector, its constitutional guarantees and its legal system. What is worse the SD has not captured Chavez’s essence as a stubborn ideologist, the opposite of a pragmatist seeking accommodation with the United States. Instead of helping to strengthen the opposition by supporting those who are fighting Chavez’s authoritarianism, the Department of State has betrayed Chavez’s opponents by acting in a most clumsy way.

Indeed, an astonished Colombian journalist questioned Shannon about why is he opening up to Chavez after Chavez asked for international recognition of the FARC. Shannon replied that "there is no evidence that the Venezuelan government has any intentional policy to promote drug and arms –trafficking through the Colombian-Venezuelan border". In fact he said that it is more likely that this was the result of (private) "smuggling". Shannon may have forgotten that the Bolivarian Circles- which are groups created by and loyal to Hugo Chavez- are believed to be involved in activities that allegedly include drug-trafficking as well as blackmailing and kidnapping. Maybe this is the non-governmental activity that Shannon refers to. If this is the case Chavez managed to create an illusion of distinction between him and his loyal followers.

In last week’s Americas Report, John Thomson, who lives in Colombia and has researched this issue carefully, stated that Venezuelan authorities have enabled some 300 hundred tons annually of Colombian cocaine to be shipped for re-export through Venezuela to Europe and the US. This is a highly profitable business for both Chavez and the FARC. The question is why the top person responsible for our Latin American policy at the State Department has managed to misinterpret the facts and by so doing has undermined the Venezuelan opposition and further reduced US credibility in the region.