18 September 2006 – While Israel invaded and brutally bombarded Lebanon in July, most of the world’s governments nodded in approval or folded their arms. Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, by contrast, roundly denounced Israel’s aggression against the Lebanese people.
“It really causes indignation to see how the state of Israel continues bombing, killing … with all the power they have, with the support of the United States,” Chavez said August 21 after a military parade in Venezuela’s northwestern state of Falcon. “It’s hard to explain to oneself how nobody does anything to stop this horror.”
Chavez backed up these words with action: Venezuela withdrew its ambassador from Israel. On August 4, he declared he is “not interested in sharing any business, offices, or anything” with the Israeli state. Israel responded by recalling its ambassador to Venezuela on August 7, criticizing what it called Chavez’s “one-sided policy” and “wild slurs.”
The Bolivarian government’s actions, strikingly bold and courageous in the context of imperialist-dominated world diplomacy, were consistent with its foreign policy of defending and aiding countries under imperialist attack. Nor did Chavez hesitate to condemn the U.S. sponsors of Israeli aggression. “I am telling you with all honesty that the hand of the Americans is spurring (Israel) on,” he told the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera on August 4. The “real threat to the world is the imperialistic threat posed by the U.S., and Israel is one of its imperialistic instruments in this part of the world.”
Venezuela’s Mideast Roots
Venezuela’s stand in the Mideast conflict also reflects the direct experience of many of its citizens. About 1.5 million Venezuelans are immigrants or descendents of immigrants from Arab countries, many of them recent arrivals from Lebanon and Palestine. There are at least five deputies of Arab origin in Venezuela’s National Assembly and one state governor of Lebanese descent. Across Latin America, 17 million are of Arab descent, of whom six million are Muslim.
During July, there were many marches in the streets of Caracas and other cities in Venezuela – as well as in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia – to show solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinians.
In 2005, the first Arab-South American Summit, held in Brazil, brought together heads of state and representatives of 33 countries. (A U.S. request for observer status was denied.) The summit adopted the “Declaration of Brasilia” calling for close ties between South America and the Arab world, and criticizing Israeli and U.S. aggression against Palestinians.
The solidarity expressed in Brasilia was tested in July this year, when member governments of the South American trade pact Mercosur held a summit in Cordoba, Argentina. The meeting was also the occasion for Venezuela’s formal entry into Mercosur. Plans had been laid for the signing at the Cordoba conference of a trade agreement between Mercosur and Israel. But the Mercosur nations refused to sign the accord and instead adopted an official document calling for a ceasefire and an end to the attack on Lebanon.
The Venezuelan president’s participation in the Mercosur summit doubtless played a role in this decision. And surely the presence of Fidel Castro, who came to sign a Cuba-Mercosur trade pact, also weighed in the balance. Cuba’s solidarity with the victims of Israeli government aggression is of long standing, and the island has no diplomatic relations with Israel. On June 29, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Israel’s military actions and called for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israeli troops from all occupied territories, the ceasing of state-terror actions by Israel, and respect for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.
Venezuela Walks the Talk
In an August 3 address to the Venezuelan people, Chavez asked “everyone in the country to give what we can for this fundraising campaign for the reconstruction of Lebanon … destroyed by the genocidal and fascist hand of Israel and its masters, the U.S. empire.”
In addition, his government pledged to send Lebanon 20,000 tonnes of aid to “help alleviate the humanitarian crisis caused by the Israeli bombing,” dispatching a Boeing 707 full of supplies as a starter.
Hezbollah representative Mahmoud Komati, told the Latin America-wide TV channel TeleSur that Venezuela took measures that were “an example for revolutionaries when defending “the oppressed, enslaved and humble peoples of the world.” (Associated Press, August 8)
On world television channels one could see Venezuelan flags in demonstrations in Beirut, next to Lebanese and Palestinian flags. It was also reported that in Gaza and the West Bank city of Ramallah, people placed posters of Chavez next to those of Arafat and Che. (Al-jazeera, August 18)
Addressing the Masses
Israel’s war on Lebanon coincided with an eight-nation tour by Chavez to discuss south-south cooperation and emphasize the need for a “multi-polar world,” in which he advocated alliances to tie the third-word countries more to each other and break U.S. hegemony.
Chavez denounced Israel at each stop. He called the Lebanese and Palestinians “heroic people” and repeatedly voiced his criticisms of Israel over its military offensive in Lebanon.
During Chavez’s visit to Iran, he called for a global coalition to combat “the U.S. imperialist monster” and reaffirmed that Venezuela would “stand by Iran at any time and under any condition.” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad responded that Hugo Chavez “one of the rare world leaders whose word and deed are the same.”
In Damascus, Chavez received a hero’s welcome: thousands of Syrians waved banners and Venezuelan flags along the route Chavez took to his meeting with Syrian President Hafaz el-Assad. The Syrian government daily, Tishrin, described Chavez as “America’s enemy number one, international leader and the biggest supporter of Arab cause.” After a meeting with Assad, Chavez said, “We want to cooperate to build a new world where states and peoples self-determination are respected.”
While Chavez’s official meetings were on a governmental level, his words were directed to the masses and had deep resonance throughout the Middle East.
In many prominent Arab newspapers, columnists ask why Arab government leaders could not do for Lebanon what a Latin American non-Arab non-Muslim leader dared to do. A protest held in Kuwait after Venezuela withdrew its ambassador from Israel featured a large placard of Chavez that declared him a “true Arab leader.”
The Venezuelan news service Vheadline.com reported on August 6 that it had been inundated with email from Arab readers supporting Chavez’s stand on Israel’s war.
UN Candidacy
The second Arab-South American Summit took place in Caracas in July, with delegations from 15 Arab and 12 South American nations. Among other issues, the Summit approved Venezuela’s application to join the Arab League, which was accepted in September. It also backed bids by Venezuela and Egypt for seats on the UN Security Council.
The U.S. has “stabbed the Middle East peace process in the heart,” Chavez said as he left for the Summit. “We see a Security Council blocked by the power of the veto, that of the government of the United States especially…. If Venezuela could occupy a seat on the council,” he continued, it might be able to “contribute modestly towards the battle to free the world from the imperialist threat.”
Venezuela’s foreign ministry is optimistic it will get the 128 votes it needs to gain a UN Security Council seat, despite strong opposition by the U.S. government.
Strategy of Solidarity
The outspokenly militant spirit of Chavez’s comments were frequently out of step with the politics of his often conservative governmental hosts. In fact, he used a diplomatic platform to address the Third World masses, irrespective of the nature of their own governments. It is to the masses that he entrusts the cause of 21st century socialism. And the popularity of Hugo Chavez in the Mideast reflects new thinking among the working masses of these countries.
Venezuela has taken initial steps toward socialism. Venezuela stands as a powerful example that the wealth generated by the oil industry can be used to improve the lives of Venezuelans and to aid working people in other countries, even as far away as the indigenous and poor people of Alaska. This is a contagious example that may not sit well with wealthy aristocratic and capitalist rulers in such countries as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and nearby states.
Behind Hugo Chavez’s response to the Lebanon war lies a powerful strategic concept. On January 31, 2005, at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, he declared, “It is impossible, within the framework of the capitalist system to solve the grave problems of poverty of the majority of the world’s population.” U.S. imperialism is not invincible, he said, repeating the words of Jose de san Martin, an Argentine independence hero, “Let’s be free without caring about what anyone else says.”
Chavez’s tour of the Middle East and Africa echoed this theme. “If we don’t make that better world possible,” he said, “if we fail through the rifles of the U.S. Marines, and through Mr. Bush’s murderous bombs; if there is no coincidence and organization necessary in the South to resist the offensive of neo-imperialism, and the Bush doctrine is imposed upon the world, the world will be destroyed.” (Granma, September 5)
As he told Al-Jazeera August 4, “We must defeat imperialism in this century, so that this elite will not annihilate the world.”
First printed Socialist Voice