REYES THEIS| EL UNIVERSAL
Saturday October 08, 2011 08:47 AM
Back in 1999, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was only in his first year as Venezuelan president. His stance on territorial claims over the Essequibo region was clear: no concessions to multinationals would be granted, and Venezuela's rights over the area were to be strongly vindicated. After 2003, that initial position began to dwindle.
Changes in the government's claims over the Essequibo territory have coincided with the shifting ideological outlook of the Venezuelan president.
In her book titled Enciclopedia del Chavismo o hacia una teología del populismo (2006) (Encyclopaedia of Chavezism or Toward a New Theology of Populism), social psychologist Colette Capriles points out that in Chávez's first few years in office the government's position was "divided between economic heterodoxy within a modernizing trend for public management and shades of some kind of authoritarian populism of a hegemonic nature." She adds that, after 2003, the government's stance began to shift left.
In fact, in those first four years of Chávez's government, a series of actions took place resembling Venezuela's traditional state policies on the Essequibo territory.
The first sign that the traditional strategy was changing was evidenced when Guyana granted a license for petroleum exploration activities in the Pomeroon oil field near Delta Amacuro state, southeast Venezuela.
This sort of action was forcefully objected on July 13, 1999, and several complaints were made before a number of World Congresses of Petroleum.
On May 23, 2000, President Chávez was adamant in connection with another concession granted by Guyana to Beal Aerospace Technologies INC, a US corporation, for installation of a platform for launching space rockets in that region.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an official notice stating that "the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela deplores the aforementioned Agreement and reaffirms to all interested parties that it does not recognize those concessions or any other concessions granted in and over the Essequibo Territory or its maritime adjacencies." Days later, a formal notice of protest was sent to the Embassy of Guyana in Caracas.
The ban on concessions in the area of Venezuela's claim was used as a means to leverage negotiations.
Shifting left
According to Colette Capriles, in 2003 Chávez's government "breaks a fundamental ideological threshold... regressively and increasingly resorting to the revolutionary thesaurus of traditional left-wing politics." Capriles adds that, in 2005, the expression "Socialism of the 21st Century" becomes an official fixture.
On February 20, 2004, the Venezuelan president sets the stage for the most significant twist in the history of this territorial dispute.
During a visit in Georgetown, Chávez announced that "the Venezuelan government will not be an obstacle to any project to be implemented in the Essequibo territory aimed at benefitting the population of that area. This includes projects such as access to water for human consumption, new roads, energy programs and agricultural activities." He added the following: "The issues over the Essequibo territory will be dismissed from the context of social, political and economic relations between both countries."
According to former Minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs Fernando Ochoa Antich, the government currently views the ties between both countries "as ideological relations and not as opposing interests."
In 2005, in his nationally televised program Aló Presidente, Chávez denounced for the first time that the United States intended to use Venezuela to overthrow Guyanese heads of state: "especially Cheddy Jagan," allegedly "out of fear that Guyana could become a Communist government along the lines of Cuba."
This interpretation of history and his outspoken ideological inclinations led Odeen Ishmael, Guyanese ambassador to Venezuela, to declare in 2007 that "this confraternity between both socialist countries calls for an end to all territorial claims since, as brothers, were are bound to live on peacefully with one another."
Chávez's statements on the reasons behind the Venezuelan claim were no blunder, however. In March 2008, during the Rio Group Summit, the president reaffirmed that "after 20 or 30 years, the truth prevails. They wanted to use us to invade Guyana, on the basis of our territorial claim, and overthrow Forbes Burnham, a left-wing leader."
Therefore, the claim no longer originated from the fact that "Venezuela was stripped of its land (the Essequibo territory) by that tainted 1899 Paris Arbitration Award," as Chávez pointed out in 1999; it was now a product of an Imperial conspiracy to overthrow a progressive government, as claimed by the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs this past 26th of September.
Translated by Félix Rojas Alva
http://www.eluniversal.com/nac...cal-positions-change
Saturday October 08, 2011 08:47 AM
Back in 1999, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was only in his first year as Venezuelan president. His stance on territorial claims over the Essequibo region was clear: no concessions to multinationals would be granted, and Venezuela's rights over the area were to be strongly vindicated. After 2003, that initial position began to dwindle.
Changes in the government's claims over the Essequibo territory have coincided with the shifting ideological outlook of the Venezuelan president.
In her book titled Enciclopedia del Chavismo o hacia una teología del populismo (2006) (Encyclopaedia of Chavezism or Toward a New Theology of Populism), social psychologist Colette Capriles points out that in Chávez's first few years in office the government's position was "divided between economic heterodoxy within a modernizing trend for public management and shades of some kind of authoritarian populism of a hegemonic nature." She adds that, after 2003, the government's stance began to shift left.
In fact, in those first four years of Chávez's government, a series of actions took place resembling Venezuela's traditional state policies on the Essequibo territory.
The first sign that the traditional strategy was changing was evidenced when Guyana granted a license for petroleum exploration activities in the Pomeroon oil field near Delta Amacuro state, southeast Venezuela.
This sort of action was forcefully objected on July 13, 1999, and several complaints were made before a number of World Congresses of Petroleum.
On May 23, 2000, President Chávez was adamant in connection with another concession granted by Guyana to Beal Aerospace Technologies INC, a US corporation, for installation of a platform for launching space rockets in that region.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an official notice stating that "the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela deplores the aforementioned Agreement and reaffirms to all interested parties that it does not recognize those concessions or any other concessions granted in and over the Essequibo Territory or its maritime adjacencies." Days later, a formal notice of protest was sent to the Embassy of Guyana in Caracas.
The ban on concessions in the area of Venezuela's claim was used as a means to leverage negotiations.
Shifting left
According to Colette Capriles, in 2003 Chávez's government "breaks a fundamental ideological threshold... regressively and increasingly resorting to the revolutionary thesaurus of traditional left-wing politics." Capriles adds that, in 2005, the expression "Socialism of the 21st Century" becomes an official fixture.
On February 20, 2004, the Venezuelan president sets the stage for the most significant twist in the history of this territorial dispute.
During a visit in Georgetown, Chávez announced that "the Venezuelan government will not be an obstacle to any project to be implemented in the Essequibo territory aimed at benefitting the population of that area. This includes projects such as access to water for human consumption, new roads, energy programs and agricultural activities." He added the following: "The issues over the Essequibo territory will be dismissed from the context of social, political and economic relations between both countries."
According to former Minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs Fernando Ochoa Antich, the government currently views the ties between both countries "as ideological relations and not as opposing interests."
In 2005, in his nationally televised program Aló Presidente, Chávez denounced for the first time that the United States intended to use Venezuela to overthrow Guyanese heads of state: "especially Cheddy Jagan," allegedly "out of fear that Guyana could become a Communist government along the lines of Cuba."
This interpretation of history and his outspoken ideological inclinations led Odeen Ishmael, Guyanese ambassador to Venezuela, to declare in 2007 that "this confraternity between both socialist countries calls for an end to all territorial claims since, as brothers, were are bound to live on peacefully with one another."
Chávez's statements on the reasons behind the Venezuelan claim were no blunder, however. In March 2008, during the Rio Group Summit, the president reaffirmed that "after 20 or 30 years, the truth prevails. They wanted to use us to invade Guyana, on the basis of our territorial claim, and overthrow Forbes Burnham, a left-wing leader."
Therefore, the claim no longer originated from the fact that "Venezuela was stripped of its land (the Essequibo territory) by that tainted 1899 Paris Arbitration Award," as Chávez pointed out in 1999; it was now a product of an Imperial conspiracy to overthrow a progressive government, as claimed by the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs this past 26th of September.
Translated by Félix Rojas Alva
http://www.eluniversal.com/nac...cal-positions-change