US Needs to be Tougher on Hugo Chavez

When Adolf Hitler rose to power, he asserted that the dire circumstances that Germany had fallen in to were problems enough for him to assume dictatorial powers. He promised to fix these problems, while at the same time allying himself with other foreign despots and rattling his saber. Everyone knows what happened after this. Unfortunately what some people do not realize is that the US very well might have a miniature if not equally scary tyrant saber rattling very close to our own border. Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, has embarked on a thoroughly anti-American and anti-capitalist crusade since his rise to power in 1999. His hateful rhetoric and radical policies have given rise to a very real problem for America and one that must be dealt with before it gets out of hand.
On January 31, the Venezuelan National Assembly gave Hugo Chavez the right to rule by decree for 18 months. Put simply, the Venezuelan National Assembly essentially gave up the few democratic powers they had maintained up to this point and has made Chavez dictator of their country. Perhaps this wouldn’t be such a problem if we were talking about Fiji or some other small and discreet country, but Venezuela is a completely different situation. Although we normally associate oil with the Middle East, Venezuela is possibly sitting on the single largest oil reserve in the world by many estimates. Likewise, the US receives about 10% of its oil imports from Venezuela, making it one of our largest oil trading partners.
The idea of having such a large oil producer so close to our borders should excite the US because of the possibility of cheaper oil, but President Hugo Chavez has embarked on a mission of using Venezuela’s oil as a weapon. He has begun the process of nationalizing Venezuela’s oil industry, even at the expense of foreign oil companies, and has promised to take his product to a non-American market. He has also made a request of OPEC to cut back oil supplies so the price of oil in America would increase even beyond its current astronomical rate.
But while Chavez attempts to increase prices in America, he is also playing games with America’s poor. Chavez has begun to offer discounted and even free heating oil for the winter to poor Americans who can not afford it otherwise. While this may seem like a benevolent action on his part, we must keep in mind that as he provides oil for the poor, and subsequently makes himself look like a hero, he is also purposely holding back oil in order to increase the price. Essentially, Chavez is creating a problem, and then giving the appearance of fixing it and in doing so undermining America on its own soil. If he were truly concerned about America’s poor, he would increase production of oil, thusly decreasing its price, and therefore allowing for more poor Americans to afford it.
Chavez’s actions do not stop with his oil shenanigans however. Besides cozying up with Fidel Castro and other socialist dictators in Latin and South America, he has also started a warm relationship with an avid Holocaust denier, the President of Iran. These two dictators, who are as radical as they are anti-American, have begun to challenge the US at every step, and even actively undermine it, as is Iran’s case in Iraq.
The Bush administration backed an unsuccessful coupe in 2002 against Chavez, but more must be done. Anti-American dictators with significant economic might, regional influence and powerful anti-American allies must not be allowed to go un-fettered. The US must rally the few Latin and South American countries who oppose Chavez’s burgeoning influence in their region to assert their own influence and stand up to Chavez. Likewise, as Chavez courts America’s poor, it should not be beyond the US to court Venezuela’s poor, who make up Chavez’s political base. By offering food, farming technology and other goods that could better the lives of Venezuela’s poor, America could very well better its own image and defeat the myth that has been created amongst these poor that Chavez is their way out of poverty.