| News Bulletin: February 13th, 2008 |
CHANGES IN THE ANDES THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL Journal Staff Writer PROVIDENCE Much has changed in Latin America since the global fiscal policies of the 1980s, representatives from Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela said yesterday at the opening of a two-day conference on changes in the Andean region, sponsored by Brown University’s Watson Institute and The Center for Latin American Studies. The Washington Consensus, which is commonly used to mean neoliberalism a political movement that combines traditional liberal concerns for social justice with an emphasis on economic growth failed from the beginning, said Venezuela’s Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez Herrera. And so countries such as Venezuela took the helm to bring about change. There were two choices, Alvarez Herrera said: social democracy or radical populism. The mention of radical populism, which U.S. politicians classify as a political threat, sparked quick reactions both from the audience and Alvarez Herrera’s companions at a panel discussion last night, Luis Benigno Gallegos Chiriboga, the Ecuadorian Ambassador, and Virginia Aillón, first secretary to the Bolivian Embassy in Washington (representing Ambassador Mario Gustavo Guzmán Saldaña, who couldn’t attend the event.) Don’t worry, my radical friends, Alvarez Herrera quickly said. When I talk about radical populism, I talk about Venezuela. Part of that new political process and perhaps the one that has generated the most international attention was recovering control of the natural resources, Alvarez Herrera said, referring to the nation’s oil production. All three countries are renegotiating royalties and contracts for the exploitation of natural resources. A contract is good as long as it benefits both parties, said Alvarez Herrera, including obviously, the needs of the owners of those resources. But over the years, partly based on the way those contracts had been negotiated, the contracts started benefiting overwhelmingly the international corporations at the country’s expense, he said. Now, what we have is a need to restore the equilibrium, said Alvarez Herrera, who dubbed the previous contracts unmanageable and illegal. Venezuela’s efforts to nationalize the oil industry gained media attention again this weekend when President Hugo Chávez threatened to end oil exports to the United States if Exxon Mobil one of the companies that has refused to sell a majority stake to the Venezuelan government succeeds in freezing billions of dollars of foreign petroleum assets controlled by Venezuela. Yesterday, Petroleos de Venezuela, the state-run oil company, announced that it had stopped selling crude to Exxon Mobil. Last night, Alvarez Herrera said Venezuela hadn’t issued any threat, but was responding to what it saw as a hostile action by Exxon Mobil at a time when the dispute had been turned over to arbitration. Political differences aside, Alvarez Herrera said, Venezuela remains a top trading partner of the United States, mostly due to its supply of crude oil. The three Latin American representatives called for the U.S. government to look at Latin America as a partner to begin a more constructive and fruitful dialogue, Gallegos said. You start by mutual respect, then you build up, the Ecuadorian diplomat said. If you do not adjust your vision, you will never see, said Alvarez Herrera, referring to a need for the United States to adjust its foreign policy regarding Latin America, saying it was based on a simplistic view branded during the Cold War years. It starts with respect, agreed former Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a visiting fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies, and dealing with each other on a one-on-one basis. Chafee said there are complex issues that need to be addressed, including petroleum and narcotics the Andean region is one of the largest producers of coca, whose leaves are used to manufacture cocaine. Some of that discussion would entail bridging cultural differences, said Aillón, noting, Coca is not cocaine. Coca is medicine, food, coca is fundamentally cultural. Also on the agenda, the three Latin American representatives said, are immigration issues. We need to clarify the situation of millions of migrants from Latin America, whose treatment is getting to be deplorable, a violation of basic human rights, Gallegos said.If you want to have an integrated region with Latin America, you should try to forget the wall, Gallegos said, referring to a proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. It sends a very bad message. |