Is there a "Bolivarian" alternative to free market integration?

Résumé du document

Since 1998, voters have elected Hugo Chavez to the presidency three times with increasing margin each time and on August 15, 2004, voters returned to polls to decide whether to remove him from office or not. 59% of voters confirmed the President's mandate and defeated the recall initiative. First Hugo Chavez's victory in the 1998 presidential elections surprised political predictions and academics alike. In fact, the political scientist Luis Gomez asserted that, despite the widespread recognition of the existence of a political crisis, very few thought that the force capable of displacing Accion Democratica (AD) and COPEI, the traditionally dominant political parties, would be the Chavismo.
The increasingly decisive victories of the Chavez presidency raise many issues. No one doubts that President Chavez is determined to lead his country, Venezuela, toward socialism. Fidel Castro constantly repeated the name, ideals and teachings of Jose Marti. He attributed to his "Revolution" the spirit of Marti and expressed the desire to finish Marti's planned integration of Latin America. As far as Hugo Chavez is concerned, he invokes the name of Simon Bolivar with the same reverence, respect and intention as Fidel Castro did with Marti. He professes that nowadays Venezuela is reigniting the Bolivarian Revolution, and says he has been passed the torch and the mission from Marti, Bolivar and Castro. Hugo Chavez, through his Bolivarian Revolution, has resigned himself to act in the sense of what those men called for: the unification of Latin America and the Caribbean as a counterbalance to the United States hegemony. Part of the historical and cultural significance of the Chavismo comes from its appropriation of the figure of Simon Bolivar.

Extraits

[...] He promised to turn the nation's oil wealth to solving its social problems. He also promised to raise the minimum wage to 3000 Bolivars per day, nearly doubling it. It's important to underline that the Bolivarian leader's discourse on national sovereignty and the rejection of the global neoliberal order of capitalism does not, however, imply breaking off relations either with United States, transnational capital, or with the multilateral economic institutions. From time to time, Chavez guarantees that Venezuela will keep on being a reliable supplier of oil for that country. [...]

[...] Is there a “Bolivarian” alternative to free market integration? Introduction Since 1998, voters have elected Hugo Chavez to the presidency three times with increasing margin each time and on August voters returned to polls to decide whether to remove him from office or not of voters confirmed the President's mandate and defeated the recall initiative. First Hugo Chavez's victory in the 1998 presidential elections surprised political predictions and academics alike. In fact, the political scientist Luis Gomez asserted that, despite the widespread recognition of the existence of a political crisis, very few thought that the force capable of displacing Accion Democratica and COPEI, the traditionally dominant political parties, would be the Chavismo. [...]

[...] The struggle over the distribution the distribution of economic surplus, that is to say, the rents produced by oil has become fully revealed as a fundamental part of the struggle for the Bolivarian State. In this way, Chavez the Bolivar's heir, has become a major reference in contemporary progressive politics for many of the Left's militants. He is perceived as the leader of an authentically popular democracy that is finally taking care of million of people condemned to poverty and exclusion by previous neoliberal economic policies in Latin America. [...]

[...] From the beginning however, the regime recognized that whatever reforms were undertaken would have to be achieved within parameters acceptable to the international financial community and the nation's wealthier classes. In short, a Cuban style- revolution was out of question. Conclusion Chavez's revolutionary icon Simon Bolivar had promised to throw out the imperialists. Chavez promised to throw out the neo liberal international capitalists with their draconian aide packages. Like Marti, Bolivar or Castro, Hugo Chavez aims at countering the United States influence in Latin America by uniting the region under one socialist regime. [...]

[...] However, it remains that it is a globalization built on a free trade project in a restricted area, the one of the MERCOSUR. Chavez embraced the concept of a “multipolar” world in which Latin American nations would form a block to defend its interests. On this basis, he spoke out against the US-dominated Free Trade Area of the Americas, which favoured foreign investments and tariff reduction on a hemispheric scale. In its place, he promoted Venezuela entrance intro MERCOSUR and Latin American unification on the model of the European Union. [...]