Posted on 26-4-2002
Globocop
v. Chavez
by Hazel Henderson
The military coup and swift reinstatement of President Chavez
in Venezuela
left the US with egg on its face. Keys to the US's increasing
irritation
with Chavez' populist Bolivarian revolution were his re-invigorating
of
OPEC, opposition to US-backed corporate globalization and free
trade, oil
and competing visions of development. Deeper than the conflicting
rhetoric
about whether Chavez resigned (which he denied) or the legality
of
Fedecameras boss economist/industrialist Pedro Carmona's installation
as
interim President by the military - lie two conflicting worldviews.
One is
represented by the Davos World Economic Forum, the orthodox
view of
industrial development, globalization and free trade, summed
up as "The
Washington Consensus".
The other view is that of global grass-roots, activists opposed
to further
globalization of corporate power, who gathered at the World
Social Forum in
2001 and 2002 under the vision "Another World is Possible" (i.e.
to
globalize human rights, workplace standards, social justice
and
environmental protection while curbing the power of global finance).
Typical of this vision is well-known Venezuelan author and diplomat
Frank
Bracho's 1998 book, Petroleum and Globalization: Salvation or
Perdition,
which struck a deep chord with President Hugo Chavez, elected
in 1998 with
an unprecedented popular mandate.
President Hugo Chavez agreed with Bracho's view that the goals
and
direction of development had been skewed by "economism" and
must be steered
toward social well-being, poverty-reduction, sustainable human
development
and quality of life. Both Bracho and Chavez are of indigenous
descent and
proud of their heritage of native wisdom. Like most of the world's
indigenous peoples, they are skeptical about the prevailing
worldview of
industrial, economic globalization - seeing the resulting destruction
of
local cultures, communities, social and ecological assets (unpriced
in
conventional economics).
I met Frank Bracho in 1984 at The Other Economic Summit, a counterpoint
to
the G7 Summit. Our close friendship since then included many
trips to
Venezuela, collaborating on the G-15 Summits, at the Report
of The South
Commission in 1989, Challenge to the South and exchanging ideas
and
contacts during Frank's tenure as Venezuela's Ambassador to
India.
Fast-forward to 2000 and a call from Bracho asking me to help
him create a
global conference of experts on all forms of energy, which President
Chavez
had asked him to convene. The International Seminar on the Future
of
Energy, convened in Caracas, June and Vancouver, August 2000,
surveyed
global energy statistics, their reliability under different
future
scenarios and included all supply options from fossil fuels
to solar, wind
and all renewables.
Chavez opened the conference and stressed that there were only
two basic
kinds of energy: solar energy and human energy. He urged our
international
participants - including many investors and CEOs of solar and
renewables
companies to think outside the box. PDVSA executives were outraged
as were
some of the OPEC representatives. Many of PDVSA's top refinery
managers
later joined Fedecameras in pressuring Chavez by shutting off
oil
production, according to Business Week (April 22, 2002). The
New York
Times, AP and most other media erroneously reported that PDVSA's
labor, not
management, led the strike that shut off almost all Venezuela's
oil exports
of 2 million barrels a day. Chavez and PDVSA had been on a collision
course
over PDVSA's demand for "autonomy" and Chavez's charges that
the
state-owned oil giant had become taken over by an elite, "an
island of
luxury in a sea of poverty."
Oil continued to be at the heart of Chavez's problems with the
USA -
dependent on Venezuela as its third largest supplier and increasingly
worried as OPEC member Iraq, cut one million barrels of production
in
protest of the Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas. Chavez
reasserted
Venezuela's leadership in OPEC while signaling an independent
foreign
policy course - risky for any Latin American country. Chavez's
early
visits to all OPEC heads of state, from King Abdullah of Saudi
Arabia to
Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Libya's Muamar Quadafi touched off a
firestorm of
anti-Chavez US media coverage of this "leftist, military caudillo."
Chavez's friendship with neighboring Cuba and Fidel Castro provoked
US fury.
In late September 2000, Chavez hosted OPEC's second summit in
the oil
cartel's 40-year history. Chavez transmitted the report of the
International Seminar on the Future of Energy to the OPEC heads
of state.
It's key recommendations included: 1)that OPEC should set up
its own
facility on new transportation and energy technologies to invest
in
post-fossil fuel futures, hydrogen, solar, fuel cells and other
renewables,
and 2) that OPEC take advantage of high-tech electronic barter
and
bi-lateral exchanges of its oil with its developing country
customers
lacking hard currency while facing rock-bottom prices for their
own
commodity exports. Economists consider barter "primitive" -
but since the
Internet and electronic trading, it has become as efficient
as money-based
trading. Where cash and currency reserves are in short supply,
electronic
barter is more efficient in matching trades.
After September 11th's attacks, Chavez further angered the US
by
characterizing Bush's war in Afghanistan as "fighting terrorism
with
terrorism." The US recalled its Ambassador for a few days. The
reality
the fossil-fueled Bush Administration must still address is
US dependency
on foreign oil - which colors all foreign policies. So far,
Bush's energy
plan, designed by campaign contributors Enron, other coal, oil,
gas and
nuclear companies, the auto industry (which still blocks greater
fuel
efficiency. CAFE standards for vehicles) is countered by the
growing
"clean, green energy" sector and its 56% popular support.
During recent visits to Caracas in 2001, on two separate occasions
while
having breakfast on the executive floor of the Caracas Hilton,
I heard US
executives discussing their plans to overthrow Chavez, by organizing
the
business-led "general strike" in July. I was participating in
the
Latin-American Parliament Conference on Integration and the
Social Debt.
Over 1000 participants and parliamentarians from all of Latin
and Central
America and the Caribbean debated new models of people-centered
development, the opposed IMF policies and the "Washington Consensus"
policies promoted by George W. Bush in his Free Trade in the
Americas plan.
I also overheard Fedecameras and US business interests plans
to overthrow
Chavez, while attending a December 2001 UNESCO-sponsored Dialogue
of
Civilizations. This explored the experiences of pre-Columbian
indigenous
peoples of "The Eagle and the Condor" in dealing with European
conquest,
chaired by Frank Bracho. During the spectacular opening ceremony
with
indigenous leaders from all the Americas, Chavez announced his
intention to
enact his land reform program and his curbing of PDVSA's autonomy.
The
second Fedecameras-led demonstrations commenced - followed by
the April oil
shutdown by PDVSA's executives. The April military coup led
by a
sympathetic faction, was also annoyed because Chavez had ended
training
programs with the US Army and US military over-flights of Venezuela.
We
may never know how involved the US was in the coup. All we know
is that
the US was infuriated that Chavez refused to support Plan Columbia
(as did
many other Latin American leaders).
* Hazel Henderson is author of Beyond Globalization and other
books on
equitable, ecologically sustainable development.
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