desde nicaragua

ALBA: Trade, doctors, literacy brigades ... and a military force?

(I meant to post this last night.)

Well, maybe. During an ALBA summit meeting today in Caracas, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez suggested that member countries create a joint military force to fend off possible future U.S. aggression.

The threat, Chávez has said, comes from his neighbor country of Colombia — where for nearly a decade the U.S. has poured billions of dollars in military aid into the controversial Plan Colombia program to eradicate coca production and drug smuggling.

After the recent release of Colombian FARC hostages, the relationship between Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and Chávez got pretty bad. Chávez routinely calls Uribe a tool for U.S. imperialism. And recently in Managua, Chávez talked about how U.S. and Colombian officials secretly plot to assassinate him and provoke an armed conflict between the two South American countries.

* It's interesting to note that during his Managua talk, Chávez made it a point to say that he is interested in peace, not war, and that it's Bush and his Uribe who are interested in war. If that's the case, why create a military?

Meanwhile, the suggestion comes as concerns here in the U.S. rise about Venezuela's weapon buildup.

For the record, until now the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas has been planted as a social/economic justice-minded alternative to neoliberal trade agreements.

Chávez: Uribe's government is a tool for U.S. imperialism

"Chávez is supposed to be an incredible speaker," my friend's wife told me. "They say that after you hear him talk, you just wanna make out with him."

With those words ringing in my ears, I left for Plaza Inter, where the Venezuelan president gave a speech this afternoon as part of his tour of Central America.

In a way, she was right. Chávez is passionate, funny and convincing. I found myself laughing, nodding, hanging onto his every word — well, every word of the first hour or so — and even agreeing a few times when he said it's either socialism or death.

I did not, however, want to make out with him. The man wasn't quite that charming.

Chávez spoke for 2 hours and 25 minutes to a crowd of more than 1,000 Sandinista supporters about the Colombian FARC hostage situation, plans to help alleviate Nicaragua's energy crisis and baseball.

Like a good speaker, he warmed up the crowd by talking about something light: Nicaragua's favorite pastime. He summarized last night's baseball game between the Managua Bóers and Masaya San Fernando (Managua won, 4-2), talked about playing ball with his mentor and "father," Fidel Castro, then made an interesting suggestion:

  "It occurred to me last night that we should invent a baseball league for the countries in Alba — for Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua. Not Bolivia, of course, because they don't play baseball; they play soccer."

He mentioned bringing in the Caribbean countries and creating a baseball training school, but quickly  the conversation turned serious. Chávez needed to respond to criticism from the Colombian government about his role as a mediator in the hostage situation. He scoffed at being called a terrorist or supporter of terrorism ("I don't agree with kidnappings ... I hope the FARC desist with that strategy"), as did a Washington Post editorial today.

"The Colombian government sends protest letters against Venezuela," Chávez said. "Let them send as many letters as they'd like, but we will continue to insist that peace needs to be reached in Colombia. It's enough of the war."

(For those of you who don't know much about the FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia), it might be worth your while to do some research on Plan Colombia, the United States' multi-billion dollar campaign to end cocaine production in that country, and the ongoing civil war there in order to understand the context.)

Chávez called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe a tool for U.S. imperialism, and that he "does whatever Bush tells him to do. That is the problem because Bush does not want peace; he wants war."

And, that, Chávez and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega agreed, makes Bush the terrorist. It's convenient for the Bush administration that Colombia's state of civil war continue so that the U.S. military can maintain its military presence there and threaten Venezuela, he said.

On Nicaragua's never-ending energy crisis, Chávez announced a project to build two more generators of 60 megawatts each by March, adding to the two his country already built here. He spoke about plans to take advantage of Nicaragua's geothermal energy potential (thanks, volcanoes) and the progress of the $4.5 billion oil refinery being built near Léon.

"This investment is from Venezuela," Chávez said. "The only condition? That we create the grand country of Sandino." That's Augusto C. Sandino, the national hero who stood up to Yankee imperialism.

By this point in the afternoon, people were getting tired and hungry. Several hundred in the crowd were bussed in from across the country because of their membership in farming cooperatives or other campesino groups. You see the same sort of faces at these events: older, tired-looking men in FSLN caps and jeans, arms crossed, and listening quietly.

These guys didn't make it through. Something that has always struck me as awesome about events like today's is how accessible they are to people. Anybody could have walked into the room, stood back and listened. No tickets necessary. I guess this is what Daniel Ortega means by "el pueblo presidente."

One last thing: Chávez confirmed a new date for the next Alba summit, originally slated for this past December here in Managua. It's now to take place here on Jan. 25.  According to the Venezuelan leader, the new Alba bank will be officially created at this summit.

On democracy, language and the next ALBA summit

As I mentioned in an earlier post, December 7 is the last day of the Purísima celebration. I hope to be in León tonight for the best parties. Between then and now, I'm riding buses, heading to the office to work on a few story ideas and reading the news.

* For The Nation, Greg Grandin, an NYU historian who specializes in Central America, writes about Chavismo and Democracy. After Sunday's "No" vote in Venezuela, critics and media  hailed it as a tribute to freedom and democracy, and a slap in the face to President Hugo Chávez's power grab. Grandin analyzes the points in the failed referendum, and writes about what direct democracy has actually meant in Venezuela.

Political scientists can debate the viability of direct, or "protagonist," democracy, but they would have a hard time making the case that politicians in Latin America's traditional representational systems are more accountable to their citizens. Throughout the 1990s, candidates for president repeatedly ran on antineoliberal platforms only to capitulate to the IMF and Wall Street once in office. And what system of checks and balances controls the monopoly power of Latin America's corporate media, as much a political as an economic force, or the "veto" that bond managers and banks have over a country's financial sovereignty? Hate him or admire him, Chávez at least tells voters what he plans to do: he made clear that in his re-election campaign he planned to introduce legislation that would allow him to seek yet another re-election ...

Never before have the majority of Venezuelans been so involved in the political life of the nation. Throughout the country, peasant organizations, cooperatives, women's and gay rights' organizations, indigenous groups, environmental activists, community councils and cultural associations argue about the possibilities, limits and perils of Chavismo. Hundreds of community radio and TV stations provide a forum for residents to express views, address local issues and learn, free of charge, production and broadcasting skills. Critics dismiss these stations as but more mechanisms of patronage and control. But all empirical evidence points to an extraordinary democratization of free speech, with little or no monitoring of content, frequent criticism of the government and uninhibited and robust grassroots participation. This is confirmed by yet another poll, released last month, by the respected Chilean firm Latinobarometro: for the third year running, Venezuelans are behind only Uruguayans in their satisfaction with their country's democratic institutions (59 percent compared with the regional average of 37 percent).

Also on The Nation's website, you can read pieces on the referendum by: Mark Weisbrot,  co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research; Sujatha Fernandes, a sociology professor who studies urban social movements in Venezuela; Chesa Boudin, a former intern on Chávez's foreign policy team; and Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, a psychoanalyst.

* Meanwhile, blogger Justin Delacour writes about a "glaring error" in an Associated Press story about the referendum:

It is incorrect to state that the constitutional changes would have "enabled him [Chavez] to remain in power for life." It would have been correct to say that the constitutional changes would have enabled Chavez to run for reelection indefinitely, but I can't emphasize enough that that is completely distinct from enabling him to "remain in power for life." Had term limits been eliminated, only the Venezuelan electorate could have enabled Chavez to "remain in power for life," and that would have been up to them. The distinction is really quite important.

It is an important distinction, and a good reminder of how much care foreign correspondents need to take when choosing words, as what they write defines for the outside world what is going on in a country.

* The NYT takes a look at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. foreign aid agency that lets recipient countries undertake their own projects, instead of doling cash to American contractors and charities. The story highlights its "sluggish record in getting projects beyond the planning stage to the point where contractors can actually build the roads, irrigation canals, power plants and clean water systems that poor countries say they need."

I hope to talk to the folks in charge of the MCC's $175 million, 5-year project in Nicaragua, which aims to improve transportation in the northwest part of the country, strengthen property rights and develop rural businesses. Paul Trivelli, the U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua, wrote in August that some US$9.6 million has been dispersed to that date. More on this later.

* The next ALBA summit will not take place in Managua, as originally planned. The president confirmed yesterday that the sixth summit for the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas is happening in Caracas on Dec. 16 and 17, in homage to the grand liberator Simón Bolivar on the anniversary of his death.

Read about the ALBA model here.

Oh, and Guatemala's president-elect, Álvaro Colom, tells Nicaragua's president it'd be too complicated for his country to join ALBA since his country has already signed a free trade agreement with the States. He added that 62 percent of Guatemala's trade is with the U.S. "and obviously it's a little complicated for the country" to sign onto the Chávez's alternative agreement (EFE).