Talk:Bolivarian Revolution/sandbox1

Petroleum and foreign policy

Further information: Foreign policy of the Hugo Chávez government

The Bolivarian Revolution under Chávez refocused Venezuelan foreign policy on Latin American economic and social integration by enacting bilateral trade and reciprocal aid agreements, including his so-called "oil diplomacy", which provided cheap oil to poor neighboring nations. Chávez regularly portrayed his movement's objectives as being in intractable conflict with neocolonialism and neoliberalism. Beyond Latin America, the oil tool of Chávez had international reach.

The Chávez administration's policy focused on the use of oil revenues to accomplish objectives domestically and in foreign policy. Oil was used to support policies in line with the aims of the socialist campaign and to confront the neoliberal model that has characterized international relations for decades. Regionally and internationally, however, oil was used tangibly and intangibly through economic exchanges and the support of ideological alliances.

According to Kozloff, writing in Hugo Chávez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the U.S (2007), Bolivarian socialism – and its ability to further the socialist cause – under Chávez hinged on oil revenues. Among the earliest objectives of the Chávez administration was the need to bring Petróleos de Venezuela (PdVSA) under greater state control to redirect revenues toward the state. The reason for this was two-fold: first, it would diminish the longstanding U.S. ties to PdVSA and the neoliberal infrastructure which had been predominant; second, consolidated state control would allow the Chávez government to use revenues as it deemed appropriate. The reforms to consolidate power meant massive layoffs and a restructuring of the company’s personnel and business models. Under the new socialist agenda, those who had longstanding ties with the U.S. and its neoliberal strategies were dismissed from senior and intermediate positions so that supporters of the new administration could replace capitalist elements of the work force.

Goforth writes in Axis of Unity: Venezuela, Iran & the Threat to America (2011) that following his domestic changes to the oil sector, Chávez set out to strengthen his position with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and called for greater unity among its members. For Venezuela, pursuit of a strengthened rapport with OPEC members would not only reinforce ideological principles but would lead to a better standing within OPEC, itself, and afford Venezuela greater control over world oil prices. The OPEC connection was a medium that led to the forging of new relationships with countries whose policies ran counter to those of many Western states, especially the United States. By 2007, for example, Chávez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had so solidified their association that the two declared an "Axis of Unity" to defeat the "imperialism of North America". The bond manifested through growing trade that developed between Venezuela and Iran. Bilateral commercial agreements rose from US$1 million in 2004 to more than $57 million by 2008.

Chávez was an outspoken critic of the U.S. war in Iraq, much to the dissatisfaction of the Bush administration which accused him of being complicit in supporting terrorist activities.

Partnership and collaboration ambitions on the part of the Chávez administration continued beyond the realm of the OPEC cartel, according to Romero (2011) in Venezuela's Petro-Diplomacy: Hugo Chávez's Foreign Policy. Through Chávez, foreign policy hinged on using oil as a tool to support ideological allies and other Leftist governments within Latin America. Relationships with Fidel Castro of Cuba and Evo Morales of Bolivia are but two examples of the alliances Chávez cultivated with Leftist governments. By way of the National Economic and Development Plan of 2007, the Bolivarian socialist regime formally declared energy development as a cornerstone in designing a new geopolitical map. In both South and Central America, Venezuelan oil wealth was helping to further the socialist cause through joint reciprocal trade agreements. Kozloff says that the Chávez administration bartered with the governments of Argentina and Uruguay to supply oil at subsidized rates in exchange for goods such as meat, milk, and industrial services for the Venezuelan state.

Ties to Colombia’s guerilla groups including the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) were supported by Venezuela’s oil revenues. Aside from attempting to create a South American oil block through refinery agreements with Brazil and Bolivia, Chávez integrated Cuba into the hemispheric objectives of the Bolivarian Revolution.

In light of the bonds created through OPEC, the ideological commonalities found in Latin America, and anti-West sentiments shared in other parts of the world, the Chávez government used oil to propel its interests into the international arena. Forging connections regionally and abroad lent magnitude to the reach of the Chávez regime and afforded it the opportunity to gain a broad audience for its cause.

References

Bibliography

• Goforth, Sean (2011). Axis of Unity: Venezuela, Iran & the Threat to America. Potomac Books Inc.
• Kozloff, Nikolas (2007). Hugo Chávez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the U.S. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Romero, María Teresa (2011). "Imposing the International Bolivarian Project". In Ralph S. Clem and Anthony P. Maingot (ed.). Venezuela's Petro-Diplomacy: Hugo Chávez's Foreign Policy. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida.