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.