Resisting Confusion: Pundit Michael Shifter and Venezuela

[bemildred]

A bit deeper than the usual blather from either side.

Elsewhere I read that "Chavez wants nukes" and "Chavez is buddies
with N. Korea". Always the same old drivel. Soon it will be
"Chavez consorts with Satan on nights of the Full Moon".

It's worth noting here that the "resurgence of the left" in Latin
America is now being taken for granted, and the debate has shifted
to attempts to isolate Chavez and the contagion he represents from
the other "leftists" in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, etc. Hence a
tacit admission of the defeat of preceding efforts to destabilize
Venezuela and remove Chavez.

The discussion of the Venezuelan militaries role today is very
interesting and I have not seen it discussed elsewhere.

On April 7 2005 Michael Shifter of Inter-American Dialogue published an article in the Financial Times. ‘Chávez should not steer US policy’ is the latest insight from Shifter on political developments in Venezuela and appropriate U.S. responses. Shifter has become something of a face and voice in the British media, regularly commentating on Venezuela. Debate around the nature, ideology, style and intentions of President Hugo Chávez is polarised both within and outside of Venezuela. Shifter is very much located within the critical camp and his position on Venezuela is very much aligned to the anti-Chávez perspective. The criticism of Shifter articulated here is not motivated by the pressing need to have balance in the coverage of Venezuela in the UK press. It is influenced by the fact that Shifter’s piece was structurally and conceptually flawed.

---

According to Shifter, Chávez is distinct from Lagos, Lula, Kirchner and Vasquez as he does not come from the tradition of ‘fighting for democracy’ that characterises his fellow presidents. While other countries in the region experienced right-wing military authoritarianism in the 1960s, 70s and 1980s, in turn prompting the left wing struggle for democracy, Venezuela remained stable and democratic. From this, Shifter proceeds with the claim that ‘the government Mr Chávez has installed in Venezuela bears greater resemblance to the regimes the other leaders fought against than the democratic societies they seek to construct.’

There are some real problems with this argument. It is most extraordinary that Shifter thinks it possible to draw parallels between the bloody and ruthless juntas that controlled countries like Argentina and Chile until democratisation in the 1980s. Shifter does acknowledge that the Chávez government has not matched the appalling human rights records of those regimes, so why attempt to draw similarities? It would seem that Shifter’s argument is underpinned by the single fact that Chávez was once a serving military officer. A few facts need to be rehearsed to demonstrate the futility of Shifter’s intellectual endeavours. Firstly Chávez was not a serving officer when he ran for election in 1998. Secondly, unlike the military regimes of the 1960s, Chávez is a democratically elected president. The Venezuelan government and its programme of change have been ratified by the Venezuelan electorate in 7 separate elections and referenda. It is acknowledged that there is a strong military component to the Venezuelan administration and ruling party, but the complex reasons for this are skipped by Shifter. The central issue however is that it is fatuous to draw parallels between military regimes of the right that took power by force and a democratically elected civilian government – particularly when the democratic credentials of the government are actually recognised by Shifter in his article.

VenezuelaAnalysis