What has been the impact of Hugo Chavez's election in 1999 on U.S.-Venezuela relations?

Résumé du document

Throughout the twentieth century and more especially since the end of the Second World War, the United States has successfully established itself as a key actor in the international scene. Since 1945, the United States has frequently proved its ability to change the course of history. Most of the superpower's actions, either diplomatic or military, show a willingness to play a leading role on the international scene. Indeed, they intervened in a lot of countries since 1945: Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Somalia, and more recently Afghanistan and Iraq.

South America has also been a source of interest for the different U.S. governments for a long time. Back in 1823, the President Monroe warned the European countries that any attempt to colonize a part of America would be severely repressed by the U.S. Known as the "doctrine Monroe", he also mentioned that the United States promises not to intervene in Europe. This doctrine is important in the sense that it has set the biggest outlines of the U.S. foreign policy during the twentieth century and keeps, at a certain level, impregnating its today's foreign policy. Historically, Latin America has always been of great importance to the United States. The U.S., still up to recently, has been the major partner in the region. Latin America provided an important outlet for U.S. buyouts, particularly in the field of oil.

Extraits

[...] It explains why the United States considered Chavez's election as a threat for U.S. economic interests. It is for this very specific reason, -the fact that they are too dependent on Venezuelan oil-, that the United States has recently considered reducing their energy dependence toward Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian republic. Under Obama's presidency, Americans approached Brazil and signed new alliances in the field of energy. Brazil's weight and size in the region, politically and economically speaking, gives the country an important status in Latin America. [...]

[...] Thus, according to the American point of view, Venezuela had crossed a line and could now belong to the “axis of defined by George W. Bush in 20023. The “axis of evil” includes countries such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq. It explains why Washington doesn't accept in any kind of way the forging relations Caracas maintains with a country as Iran. This led Washington to try a new political strategy toward Caracas: the isolation, both regional and international. In this sense, the U.S. started to sign alliances with Venezuela's neighbors. [...]

[...] Likes its political example Simon Bolivar, who liberated a partly South America from the colonial powers, Chavez aims to liberate the sub-continent from the “American imperialism”. During Chavez's first year of presidency, relations between the two countries appeared to be relatively calm. Clinton's presidency didn't show much interest toward Venezuela, his administration reacted quite indifferently on Chavez's election of 1999. At the time, there were no major tensions or issues between the two countries. Nonetheless, the election of George W. Bush at the White House in 2000 drastically changed the relations between the two countries. [...]

[...] main aim is to protect its interests in Venezuela. In other words, the procurement of oil to the United States at a normal price is what the American government is most worried about. It is essential for the U.S. to control the oil's prices. And with a volume of production that nearly reaches 3,5 million barrels per day, Chavez knows how important he can be and sort of plays with this fact on his diplomacy. Venezuela is the fifth largest producer of oil in the world[6] provides 13% of the oil U.S. [...]

[...] No, there is much more at stake, at the very least drug trafficking + illegal immigration control with Mexico and Columbia and huge economic and strategic interests with Brazil. This regional approach of the U.S. foreign policy toward Venezuela is also observable on the international level and particularly on international organization. Thus, in November of 2006, the United Nations had to choose a new non-permanent member for the Security Council of the UN. Right after the first negotiations, Venezuela showed its will to get the new seat of non-permanent member. This is the moment U.S. [...]