The Chavezjad Doctrine: Between Myth and Speculation
Hugo Chavez, a skilled provocateur, has forged political alliances over the course of his 11-year rule in Venezuela with an array of governments that share his zeal for needling and defying the United States.
AP Photo/Fars News Agency | Hamid Harasi
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Hugo Chavez, a skilled provocateur, has over the course of his eleven-year rule in Venezuela forged political alliances with an array of governments that share his zeal for needling and defying the United States. Chavez’s political strategy, after all, is based on accumulating power, and despite its considerable difficulties and relative decline, the US remains the world’s preeminent power. Given that Latin America (not to mention Venezuela) is too small a player for his outsized ambitions, Chavez has naturally sought to make friends across the globe -- if for no other purpose than to irk Washington. No alliance has been as satisfying for Chavez in this regard as the one he has developed with Iran, which has grown especially close since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president in 2005.
The Venezuela-Iran relationship predates both Ahmadinejad and Chavez, going as far back as the 1960s, when both governments were founding members of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). Yet it was after major changes in each country’s political situations—the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Chavez’s ascension to power via the ballot box two decades later—that shared interests beyond the oil market gained saliency. Iran and Venezuela began to take advantage of their prized resource not only to become relevant players on the world stage, but also to support the shared goal of curtailing US influence across the globe. At present, there is not much daylight between the geo-political goals being pursued by Chavez and Ahmadinejad. Their common enemy is the US, and each president’s posture towards America could well result in reckless conduct.
The key question is whether the Venezuela-Iran relationship can best be understood as merely a political alliance –that is, a byproduct of self-interested jockeying and rapidly shifting poles of power in the world --or rather as something more sinister meriting an energetic response from the United States and other governments concerned about peace and security in the Americas. Apart from irritating Washington, what does Venezuela gain from the alliance? And what are the possible benefits for Iran in its global strategy?
An Unclear Relationship
Such questions are not easy to answer. Much of the Venezuela-Iran relationship remains obscure, making it the subject of endless speculation and myth. Suspicions abound, for example, about the purpose of the weekly flights between Caracas and Tehran -- there is even some scuttlebutt circulating about training of Hezbollah in the state of Zulia – but such rumors are unsubstantiated and seem a bit far-fetched.
What is known – indeed, what both leaders proudly tout – is that Chavez and Ahmadinejad have frequently visited each other in recent years, and that the two governments have signed myriad cooperative agreements for future economic projects. Few doubt that Chavez is the principal point of entry to Latin America for the Ahmadinejad regime, as he has seemingly facilitated Iranian visits and incipient economic relationships with ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America) members such as Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Ecuador.
Iran is also seeking to extend its presence and influence throughout areas of the region that remain more removed from Chavez’s sphere of influence, like Brazil and even Colombia (hardly a Chavez ally these days). Ahmadinejad made a highly publicized and controversial visit to Brazil on November 23 (see side box), which served as Iran’s formal introduction to South America’s strongest power and as Lula’s clear message to Washington that when it comes to foreign policy, Brazil will meet with whomever it wishes. But Chavez, not Lula, is Ahmadinejad’s principal interlocutor in the hemisphere -- and their ideological affinity is the most pronounced.
Nuisance and Threat
The catch is that while Chavez is seen largely as a nuisance by the international community, Ahmadinejad is regarded as a threat because he is believed to be actively pursuing a nuclear weapons program and simultaneously obstructing U.N. demands for inspections of Iranian facilities. His repeated denial of the Holocaust, virulent remarks against Israel, support for terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, and the systematic crackdown on the Iranian opposition after the contested outcome of the June elections testify to the nefarious character of the regime. In this sense, Chavez comes off as the moderate one in the relationship. While Venezuela’s own authoritarian tendencies are troubling, the political system can best be characterized as oppressive rather than outright repressive like Iran’s. Rhetorically, however, the similarities are striking, and the congruity in views was clear during Ahmadinejad’s latest visit to Caracas on November 27. With the Iranian president at his side, Chavez praised him as an “anti-imperialist gladiator” and denounced Israel as the “murderous arm of the Yankee empire.”
As a measure of the concern in Washington about risks associated in the relationship between Venezuela and Iran, the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere convened an unprecedented hearing precisely on this subject on October 27, 2009. As the committee’s chairman Eliot Engel (Democrat/New York) noted, “given the nature of the regime, it can be assumed it (Iran) is up to no good in the region.” While worried about Iran’s “record of deceit, especially on the nuclear program,” Engel conceded that much is unknown about the Venezuela-Iran relationship.
The hearing came six weeks after a special briefing at the Washington-based Brookings Institution by New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau entitled, “The Link Between Iran and Venezuela: A Crisis in the Making?” For most in the audience who were aware of the bilateral relationship, Morgenthau covered familiar ground, particularly highlighting questions about possible money laundering operations to support terrorist groups in the Middle East. Though the reports were not new, the fact that they were presented by someone of Morgenthau’s stature and reputation lent the issue greater seriousness. For many observers, possible money laundering by Iran within the Venezuelan banking system, though unsubstantiated, has a ring of plausibility, as the practice is an unfortunate but widespread problem throughout much of the Americas.
And at a State Department briefing on Latin America on December 11, 2009, Secretary of State Clinton issued the Obama administration’s toughest warning yet of Iran’s relationships in the region, especially with Venezuela and Bolivia. “And I think that if people want to flirt with Iran,” Clinton cautioned, “they should take a look at what the consequences might well be for them.” Unsurprisingly, those stern words provoked a reaction from Chavez three days later at an ALBA meeting in Havana, in which he dismissed such “threats” as being part of an “imperial offensive.”
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