Word: latinities
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is better known for a blustering, antagonistic style of politics that has made him the star of Latin America's resurgent left. But as he flew into in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina, on Thursday to try and head off a rift between his left-wing allies Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina over Bolivia's abrupt nationalizaton of its natural gas and oil industries this week, Chavez suddenly found himself in the unfamiliar role of quiet diplomat. And his success or failure may well determine whether or not he becomes the sort of regional leader he's always aspired...
...face, the stunning move by Bolivian President Evo Morales to bring his nation's recently discovered natural gas reserves, South America's second largest, under state control would seem to be a triumph for Chavez and his quest to integrate Latin America under his leftist "Bolivarian Revolution" (named for South America's independence hero, Simon Bolivar). But while Venezuela has the hemisphere's largest oil reserves, Bolivia is still a bit player on the world energy stage. And while Morales' nationalization decree was certainly a strong rebuke to the U.S.-backed capitalist reforms that have swept the region over...
...among its biggest energy investors as well. "Foreign energy companies got very sweet deals when Bolivias energy sector was privatized in the 1990s, and many Bolivians feel they were screwed," says David Mares, a political science professor at the University of California-San Diego and an expert on Latin American energy issues. "But in the end, Morales needs a lot of capital to make this work - which means he needs Brazil and Argentina more than they need him. He's going to have to make deals right away...
...Bush Administration has long argued that Chavez is a would-be dictator in the mold of Fidel Castro and a threat to hemispheric stability. But if Chavez can use his combination of financial clout and pan-Latin charisma to keep the Puerto Iguazu parties united, it would undoubtedly help raise his standing from an anti-U.S. firebrand to the sort of regional coalition-builder Latin America has never had. Alex Main, a former international relations advisor to Chavez, concurs: "This is the first time we've seen a real challenge to the unity of the new Latin American left...
...crude prices at astronomical levels, Chavez has used his petro-largesse - including programs to provide cash-strapped neighbors with cheaper access to Venezuelan oil and to build continent-wide pipelines for oil and natural gas - to create what he hopes could someday be an E.U.-style economic partnership in Latin America (though analysts like Mares nevertheless call it a pipe dream at this point...