[OPE-L] Chavez embraces socialism (but not the old kind)

["michael a. lebowitz" <mlebowit@xxxxxx>]

Defying U.S., Venezuela's Chavez Embraces Socialism
Fri Feb 25, 2005 02:59 PM ET 

By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday
embraced socialism as his ideology of choice in a political statement
that sharpened his antagonism against the United States.

Chavez, a firebrand nationalist who has governed the world's No. 5 oil
exporter for six years, has persistently declined to define the precise
ideology of his self-styled "revolution."

But, addressing an international meeting on poverty in Caracas, he said
Western-style capitalism was incapable of solving global economic and
social problems.

"So, if not capitalism, then what? I have no doubt, it's
socialism," said Chavez, who also rebuffed U.S. criticism of his
left-wing rule in Venezuela and denounced President Bush as the
"great destabilizer of the world."

Since coming to power, he has irritated Washington by developing
alliances with China, Russia and Iran and flaunting a close personal
friendship with Cuba's Communist President Fidel Castro, a longtime foe
of the United States.

Chavez's public support for socialism recalled Castro's defining
announcement in the early 1960s that his 1959 Cuban Revolution was
"socialist."

Chavez said he had up to now avoided labeling his political program in
Venezuela as "socialist."

But he added his personal experience in power, which included surviving a
brief coup in 2002, had convinced him that socialism was the answer.
"But what kind?"

Chavez, who won a referendum in August ratifying his rule until early
2007, said previous experiences of socialism in the world -- an apparent
reference to the former Soviet Union -- might not be the example to
follow.

"We have to invent the socialism of the 21st century," he
added.

Venezuela's 1999 constitution promoted by Chavez enshrines a multi-party
political system and he has denied he is a communist. But he has
intensified state intervention in the economy, encouraged the formation
of cooperatives and is pursuing land reforms critics say threaten private
property.

Chavez resumed his aggressive stance just a day after his vice president,
Jose Vicente Rangel, called for talks with the United States and said
Caracas was ready to help fight terrorism and drug-trafficking and keep
oil flowing to the United States.

But Rangel had also echoed Chavez's anti-U.S. criticisms, and U.S.
diplomats here complain their requests for meetings with government
ministers are turned down.

WHO IS DESTABILIZING?

While Venezuela remains a key oil supplier to the U.S., Chavez has this
year stepped up a war of words with the United States. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice has called him a "destabilizing influence" in
Latin America.

A former paratroop officer, Chavez was first elected in a 1998 election,
six years after leading a botched coup bid.

Opponents of the Venezuelan leader, whom Chavez dismisses as puppets of
the United States, accuse him of ruling like a dictator and dragging the
country toward Cuba-style communism.

In what Caracas calls "impertinent" meddling, U.S. officials
are also opposing Venezuela's purchase of Russian helicopters and
automatic rifles for its armed forces.

"The only destabilizer here is George W. Bush, he's the big
destabilizer in the world, he's the threat," Chavez said. He has
condemned the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Chavez also repeated charges that the increased U.S. criticism was
preparing the ground for an attack against Venezuela and included a plan
to assassinate him. U.S. officials have rejected this as
"ridiculous."

---

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Michael A. Lebowitz

Professor Emeritus

Economics Department

Simon Fraser University

Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at

Residencias Anauco Suites

Departamento 601

Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1

Caracas, Venezuela

(58-212) 573-4111

fax: (58-212) 573-7724