In September 2006, then President George W. Bush delivered a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in which he defended the bloody war and occupation of Iraq. The next day, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez took the floor. “Yesterday, the devil came here … and it smells of sulfur still today,” Chávez said. “The gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world,” he continued, “to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world.”
The corporate media went into a tizzy about Chávez’s breach of “diplomatic protocol,” but the speech electrified and spoke for the millions worldwide horrified at the brutality of the U.S. war machine.
Chávez’s consistent denunciations of imperialist crimes were not rooted in “demagogic populism.” Rather, such comments were consistent with the logic of the Bolivarian Revolution itself, which repeatedly came into conflict with imperialism as it reclaimed the country’s wealth, fostered relations with other oppressed nations, and moved further in the direction of socialism.
From the beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution, Chávez made clear that the revolution’s success would be determined not just by the people of Venezuela, but as a continent-wide, and ultimately global, project. This genuine spirit of internationalism—a foreign policy based on solidarity and love for the oppressed—is what made Chávez such a popular leader worldwide.
Falsely labeled “anti-American” because of his anti-imperialism, Chávez’s offers of solidarity frequently extended to poor and working people in the United States.
Construction of regional organizations
Inspired by Simón Bolívar, José Martí and the dreams of many other anti-colonial heroes for a united continent, Venezuela has been building several important regional organizations.
In 2004, Venezuela and Cuba signed a trade agreement that created an organization called the Bolivarian Alternative for Peoples of our America, commonly referred to as the ALBA. This alliance offered an alternative to the neo-liberal “free trade” offensive that was being waged by U.S. imperialism around the world, especially in Latin America.
In addition to Cuba and Venezuela, six other nations are now full members of ALBA: Ecuador, Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Nicaragua and Dominica. Honduras was a full member until a U.S.-backed coup in 2009 overthrew President Manuel Zelaya and installed a right-wing client government, which promptly removed the country from the alliance.
A key factor in the success of the Bolivarian Revolution was the nationalization of the country’s vast oil supply, the wealth from which had previously been stolen by a collection of Western monopolies. Under the leadership of Chávez, the oil not only was used to dramatically improve standards of living inside Venezuela, but also to assist in the development of other countries in the region.
To administer this program, Venezuela initiated PetroCaribe in 2005. Now consisting of 18 member states around the Caribbean, countries that are a part of this alliance have access to tens of millions of barrels of subsidized Venezuelan oil that have helped alleviate the suffering of the most oppressed layers of their societies.
Venezuela was also instrumental in the creation of UNASUR (the Union of South American Nations) and CELAC (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States). These international organizations provide an important counterweight to the Organization of American States, the body U.S. policymakers traditionally use to dictate to its Latin American proxy regimes.
Much is made in the corporate media about Venezuela’s assistance to socialist Cuba with cheap oil. Venezuela has prioritized this relationship, breaking with the tradition of the Latin American oligarchies to politically and economically isolate the island. Now Cuba has established relations throughout Latin America. The relationship with Cuba has been deeply reciprocal. Cuba has provided critical support to Venezuela’s social programs, including tens of thousands of internationalist doctors who have provided free medical care in Venezuela. Chávez frequently spoke about his close political relationship with revolutionary Cuba, and the guidance provided by Fidel Castro in particular.
Struggles in the Middle East
But Venezuela’s internationalism is by no means confined to Latin America. As the imperialist powers turned their attention to the domination of the Middle East, the Bolivarian Revolution has established a record of principled solidarity with the people and governments resisting this attack.
Considering the difficult global environment in which the Venezuelan revolutionary process has taken place, it would have been easy for Chávez to remain silent on such “controversial” international questions. Instead, he passionately denounced the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and used Venezuela’s full diplomatic and political weight to expose the crimes of the occupations.
Venezuela has been a consistent ally of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. When Israel began its murderous invasion of Gaza in 2009, code-named Operation Cast Lead, Venezuela ended diplomatic relations with the Israeli regime and expelled its ambassador. Palestinian flags were waved at major rallies in Caracas, while Chávez and then Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro proudly addressed crowds wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh.
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese resistance organization Hezbollah, explained, “He [Chávez] did this because of his humanity, his sense of revolution and, in this way, he dealt a severe blow to those who are now hosting the ambassadors of Israel in their capitals and do not have enough courage to even think about telling them to leave.”
When the United States and its NATO allies encouraged a civil war and unleashed a brutal bombing campaign against the people of Libya, Venezuela worked tirelessly to broker a settlement that preserved Libyan sovereignty. Venezuela-based news network Telesur was one of the few media outlets with reporters in Tripoli trying to counter the misinformation campaign of the big business press.
The Bolivarian government is also taking measures to try to prevent a similar situation from unfolding in Syria. Venezuela has fought the efforts to economically strangle Iran with sanctions, building an alliance to ease the country’s forced isolation. Syria and Iran are the only countries outside of Latin America and the Caribbean to have observer status in ALBA.
A 2009 opinion poll conducted in Arab countries asked respondents to pick the two leaders outside of their own country who they admire most. Chávez was by far the most popular, with 36 percent of those polled choosing him.
Solidarity with workers and poor in U.S.
The Bolivarian Revolution has always had the ideological clarity to distinguish between the capitalist rulers of the United States and the population. Its animosity toward the U.S. government has been matched with solidarity for poor and working people in the United States.
A concrete example of this support is the long-running home heating assistance program carried out by Venezuelan state oil company subsidiary CITGO and Citizens Energy Corporation. This winter, over 100,000 families received assistance under this program. Since its inception in 2005, 200 million gallons of heating oil were distributed among more than 1.7 million people. As Venezuelan diplomat Claudia Salerno Caldera said at an event to mark the beginning of the 2013 program, “Our commitment to the poor transcends all boundaries.”
As a response to the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the U.S. government’s criminally negligent response, Venezuela offered to send 1 million barrels of oil and thousands of volunteers. This aid, along with Cuba’s offer to send doctors, was turned down.
But the most important form of assistance the Bolivarian Revolution has offered the people of the United States and the world is an example of resistance and revolution, a living-and-breathing effort to replace capitalist exploitation and oppression with socialist dignity and equality.
