[Marxism] Chavez offers billions in Latin America

[Dbachmozart@xxxxxxx]

Chavez offers billions in Latin America

By NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON and  IAN JAMES, Associated Press Writers  Aug 26,
2007
_http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070826/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_dollars_from_
chavez_1;_ylt=Au3H4021IumWIch5QCNLBL4E1vAI_ 
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070826/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_dollars_from_chavez_1;_ylt=Au3H4021IumWIch5QCNL
BL4E1vAI) 

CARACAS,  Venezuela - Laid-off Brazilian factory workers have their jobs
back,  Nicaraguan farmers are getting low-interest loans and Bolivian
mayors can  afford new health clinics, all thanks to Venezuelan President
Hugo  Chavez.
Bolstered by windfall oil profits, Chavez's government is now  offering
more direct state funding to Latin America and the Caribbean than  the
United States. A tally by The Associated Press shows Venezuela has  pledged
more than $8.8 billion in aid, financing and energy funding so far  this
year.

While the most recent figures available from Washington  show $3 billion in
U.S. grants and loans reached the region in 2005, it isn't  known how much
of the Venezuelan money has actually been delivered. And  Chavez's spending
abroad doesn't come close to the overall volume of U.S.  private investment
and trade in Latin America.

But in terms of direct  government funding, the scale of Venezuela's
commitments is unprecedented for  a Latin American country.

Chavez's largesse tends to benefit left-leaning  nations that support his
vision of a Latin America with greater independence  from the United
States. But he denies the two countries are in a  competition.

"We don't want to compete with anyone. I wish the United  States were 100
times above us," Chavez told the AP in a recent interview.  "But no, the
U.S. government views the region in a marginal way. What they  offer is a
pittance sometimes, and with unacceptable pressures that at  times
countries can't accept."

U.S. aid tends to be low-profile,  constrained by strict guidelines and
often distributed through other  institutions so that recipients may not
know it's from the U.S. government.  Venezuela offers money with few
strings attached and a personal Chavez touch  that aid experts say
generates more good will dollar for dollar.

Clay  Lowery, the U.S. Treasury Department's acting undersecretary  for
international affairs, argues that the U.S. plays a larger role  than
reflected in its aid figures. The United States, for instance,  drove
Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank debt relief deals  totaling
$7.5 billion over the past three years in Latin America, he  said.

"Who is the biggest financier of the IDB? The United States. Who is  the
biggest financier of the World Bank? The United States is. We don't  count
those," Lowery said. "We're basically engaged on a multilevel,  multi-prong
approach."

Still, as the Chavez effect gains ground, there  are signs the U.S. is
responding to the challenge.

The U.S. Navy  medical ship Comfort is on a four-month, 12-country voyage
to Latin American  ports, and has already treated more than 80,000 patients
with free  vaccinations, eye care, dental checkups and surgeries aboard the
converted  oil tanker.

U.S. officials are taking their cue from the free eye  surgeries and
medical training that Chavez offers, says Adam Isacson of  the
Washington-based Center for International Policy, which tracks  American
aid and advocates international cooperation.

"They're trying  to do things that are aimed in a small way at countering
what Chavez is doing  â Chavez's much larger aid programs," he said.

His group calculates that  nearly half of U.S. aid to the region goes to
military and police programs.  However, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson also has pointed to the U.S.  government's work with the IDB to
mobilize up to $200 million through private  lenders to support small
business loans.

Chavez's aid isn't limited to  his region. Low-income Americans get cheap
heating oil, while the former  Soviet republic of Belarus is counting on
Chavez to help pay off a $460  million gas bill to Russia. But most of the
funding goes to Latin  America.

When a Brazilian plastics factory was shuttered in 2003 by its  indebted
owners, hundreds of workers formed a cooperative. They appealed for  help
in a private meeting with Chavez, who offered subsidized raw materials  in
exchange for the technology to produce plastic homes in Venezuela.  The
factory soon hummed back to life.

"I know there are people out  there criticizing Chavez for helping us. They
say he is interfering with the  internal affairs of Brazil," said Salviano
Jose da Silva, a security guard at  the Flasko factory near Sao Paulo. "But
all he's doing is helping to  guarantee our livelihood â something the
government should be doing but  isn't."

When floods hit Bolivia this year, the U.S. provided $1.5 million  in a
planeload of supplies and cash. Chavez promised 10 times more and sent  in
teams that helped victims for weeks. In all, Chavez's pledges to  Bolivia
total over $800 million, more than six times the U.S. commitment  this
year.

He also offered money for new garbage trucks in Haiti and  an Argentine
dairy cooperative.

Opponents say Chavez is spending  haphazardly on "giveaways" abroad at a
time when more than a quarter of  Venezuelans still live on less than $3 a
day. They question how long he can  sustain it since government revenues
are highly dependent on fluctuating oil  prices.

While Venezuelan asphalt paves streets in Bolivia's capital, a  sign
recently protruded from one of Caracas' potholes reading: "Why for  Bolivia
yes and for me no?"

Chavez argues much of the funding brings  benefits back to Venezuela,
including oil-related investments and other  cooperative exchanges. He says
billions more are being spent within  Venezuela, and cites social programs
credited with helping to reduce  poverty.

His recent commitments in the region exceed those of the World  Bank and
the Inter-American Development Bank. Each lent nearly $6 billion in  2006,
but their influence has declined as nations repay their outstanding  loans.
Regional International Monetary Fund debts dropped from $49 billion  in
2003 to just $694 million this year, largely due to early repayments,  some
of them financed by Chavez.

Chavez offers funds in  unconventional, sometimes spontaneous ways. Summing
it up is difficult due to  a lack of transparent accounting, so the AP
tally is based on public pledges  rather than what has actually been spent.
Some of the money is expected to be  paid over multiple years. The tally
also cannot cover undisclosed spending,  such as aid to Cuba or Venezuela's
share in building a $5 billion oil  refinery in Ecuador.

Venezuela's funding differs from U.S. aid because it  includes investments
that in the U.S. would come from the private sector and  purchases of bonds
that are later resold.

Most of the funding â $6.3  billion â involves energy projects, some of
which directly benefit  Venezuela's oil industry, such as a $3.5 billion
refinery to be built in  Nicaragua. That also includes funding for
electricity plants in Haiti and  Bolivia, and an estimated $1.6 billion in
fuel financing to at least 17  nations.

Venezuela has pledged $772 million in development aid, including  AIDS
treatment in Nicaragua, housing in Dominica and Cuban doctors in  Haiti.

In Bolivia, $20 million went directly to mayors selected by  leftist
President Evo Morales for projects including health clinics and  schools.
Mayor Miguel Avila gratefully accepted a $427,000 check for his town  of
San Lorenzo to build a new farmers' market.

Critics warn that scant  oversight leads to waste and corruption.

"You don't do things well by  just giving money away," said Liliana
Rojas-Suarez, a former IMF economist at  the Washington-based Center for
Global Development. "If you give money  without any conditions attached,
without any expectations, without anything,  what are the incentives?"

But Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic  Policy Research says Chavez
has succeeded in providing more financing options  and breaking up a
"creditors' cartel" of Washington-based lenders whose  economic
prescriptions failed to improve the lives of the poor.

Chavez  helped Argentina pay off its IMF debt by buying some $5.1 billion
in  Argentine bonds in recent years, and now proposes a "Bank of the South"
that  would use billions from Venezuela's international reserves as  seed
money.

Meanwhile, Venezuela's state development bank, Bandes, is  expanding into
Bolivia, Uruguay, Honduras, Guatemala and Haiti. In Nicaragua,  it is
offering loans at just 5 percent interest, compared to 35 percent by  some
private banks.

Nicaraguan farmer Juan Vicente Castillo, whose  cooperative plans to grow
black beans to pay off part of a $750,000 Bandes  loan, says: "We are very
grateful to President Chavez's government for this  loan that the
commercial banks wouldn't  give."



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