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On Sunday, May 23, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced to the media that Venezuela would reject a request by the United States and the Netherlands for blanket authorization allowing U.S. counternarcotics overflights out of the Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curacao to pass through Venezuelan airspace. On Monday, May 24, Venezuela officially notified the United States of its "irreversible" decision not to allow other nations' military aircraft to enter its airspace without explicit authorization. Pointing to Venezuelan law, which prohibits overflights of other nations' warplanes with armed soldiers, Chavez said he was "sure this position is understood, and that it will not hurt relations with any nation."

Forward operations

With the loss of Howard Air Force Base in Panama, the United States has been scrambling to negotiate temporary agreements for access to airfields, known as "forward operating locations" or FOLs, in other Caribbean and Andean nations. (See...) The request to Venezuela came after an April 13 temporary agreement between the United States and the Netherlands allowing the United States storage of aircraft and use of airstrips in the two Dutch Antillean colonies, which became fully operational on May 1, when Howard officially reverted to Panamanian control. While the most direct route from the islands to Colombia is through Venezuelan airspace, the Weekly News Update has pointed out that flying around it wouldn't require too much of a detour.

Rejection...

On May 12, Venezuelan Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Vicente Rangel told reporters that U.S. and Dutch ambassadors had asked Venezuelan permission for the overflights "weeks ago," in return inviting Venezuela to participate in U.S. counternarcotics work by "[stationing] personnel in Aruba and Curacao, [riding] any U.S. aircraft that overflies Venezuelan territory, and [sharing] fully in any information gathered." Venezuelan officials initially expressed reservations, citing sovereignty issues and concerns that U.S. aircraft stationed on the islands are not limited to reconnaissance craft, but include F-16 warplanes. Some of the strongest objections to the proposal apparently came from powerful sectors of Venezuela's armed forces. In contrast, Minister of Defense Raul Salazar minimized the significance of the FOLs, saying that in reality the United States is simply "putting a few planes there." Venezuelan daily El Mundo called Chavez' stand one of "unquestionable courage," while business sectors awaited Washington's reaction. Chavez' statements reiterated Venezuela's partnership with the United States, pointing out the tight relationship that exists in the oil trade.

..sort of

In rejecting the U.S. request, Chavez gave several alternatives for Venezuelan cooperation in U.S. counternarcotics efforts. For example, Venezuela possesses its own F-16 and Mirage planes equipped to overfly and intercept suspicious aircraft in cooperation with the United States, something which has been done several times this year with Colombia. He also offered the United States use of Venezuelan military radio frequencies to facilitate this cooperation. In addition, Rangel asserted that with sufficient satellite resources, radar installations on Venezuelan soil as well as in the Caribbean, and the Colombian Tolemaida military base-- which hosts a U.S. counternarcotics team-- Venezuela was guaranteed "total coverage" in its counternarcotics work, without resorting to overflights by other nations' military aircraft. Later he reiterated his analysis that "if the problem is to fight narcotraffic and not something else, that should be enough." Following Venezuela's announcement, Rangel again met with U.S. and Dutch ambassadors, who gave him alternative proposals to discuss with Chavez. According to the Latin America Working Group and the Center for International Policy, in 1998 Venezuela hosted 35 U.S. special forces missions, more than any other Latin American country.

Left alone

On May 22, Colombian ambassador to Venezuela, Luis Guillermo Giraldo told Mildred Camero, president of Venezuela's National Antidrug Commission that Colombia already has agreements with the United States allowing U.S. surveillance overflights with mixed crews, and expressed his hope that Venezuela would arrive at a position that allows for the defense of its sovereignty while permitting necessary international counternarcotics cooperation. This statement left Venezuela alone in rejecting the U.S. proposal, and came after earlier joint statements indicating that Colombia and Venezuela were working on developing a common counternarcotics agenda.

A "multipolar world"

A document produced by the Chancellory calls the Caribbean and Ecuadoran FOLs part of a new United States strategy to insert itself into the region under the guise of such shared concerns as combatting narcotrafficking, defending human rights, and preserving the environment. The document recommends that Venezuela confront this threat by working to raise awareness and explore the possibility of developing a "multipolar world" with fellow nations in the region. Speaking on another occasion in the context of the FOLs, Chancellor Rangel pointed to voices of dissent in the Netherlands, warning their own government to be careful not to allow its cooperation with United States' counternarcotics initiatives to adversely affect the Netherlands' traditionally excellent relationships with Venezuela and Colombia. Meanwhile, Chavez has been working to develop international cooperation in other arenas. On May 27 in Cartagena, Colombia, leaders of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela completed an Andean Community summit, agreeing to move on a series of resolutions for greater regional integration in terms of economic, social, and foreign policy. Leaders also supported Chavez' proposal to hold an extraordinary summit this year in Venezuela to discuss Bolivia's access to the Pacific Ocean and developing new roles for the region's militaries in the new millenium. As a model, Chavez pointed to Venezuela's military, which through the Plan Bolivar 2000 has been participating in a number of humanitarian and infraestructural projects, such as building and repairing roads, sewers, schools, and clinics. Two weeks later at the Organization of American States General Assembly, held June 7-9 in Guatemala, a U.S. proposal for the creation of a multinational military force to intervene in countries where democracy was being threatened was shelved after most of the Andean nations, plus Chile and Mexico, raised opposition. U.S. spokespeople said the proposal wasn't dead; they hadn't hoped to pass it at this meeting, but merely bring it up for discussion. As an interesting counterpoint to the U.S. proposal, Venezuelan representative Rangel gave a presentation to the assembly calling for the renewal and strengthening of democratic institutions throughout the hemisphere for the new millenium. He warned that the failure to follow through with the development of truly participative democracy would lead "sooner or later to an irresolvable crisis of legitimacy."

Making up

On June 9, President Chavez began a quick trip to Houston and New York with an agenda including meetings with business leaders such as ex-president George Bush and Robert Mosbacher of the Council of the Americas, Kofi Annan, and U.S. Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey. In addition to restoring U.S. business leaders' confidence in Venezuela, Chavez secured from McCaffrey his understanding regarding Venezuela's rejection of U.S. overflights and the United States' "total support for his leadership." U.S. President Clinton, not on Chavez' June agenda, wrote expressing his hope that the two could meet sometime in September. Clinton said he hoped for tighter relations between the two countries in the areas of investment, maritime, and extradition policy-currently the subjects of bilateral negotiations-as well as other areas of common interest like human rights, democracy, economic prosperity, and fighting drugs, corruption, and crime.

In addition to the recent overflight decision, Chavez had raised concerns in some U.S. business and government policy circles-- as well as Venezuelan business circles-- for objecting earlier this year to U.S. accusations of human rights violations by Cuba, China, and Iran at the Geneva Commission.

Chavez the man

Leader of a failed military coup in 1992, Chavez came to office in a landslide election last December, disrupting the two-party system that had controlled Venezuelan politics since the 1950s. Supported by a broad grassroots and largely left-leaning alliance called the Patriotic Pole, as well as his own military-political group, the Fifth Republic Movement, Chavez has promised to yank Venezuela out of its severe economic crisis, improve the standard of living of the 80% of Venezuelans who currently live in poverty, and revise the nation's constitution, among other things. His detractors have called him a communist, a populist, and a dictator, and so far his tenure in office has given mixed messages about his commitment to democratic institutions, as well as his economic promises. An April 25 referendum supported his call for a constituent assembly to restructure government and rewrite the constitution, and the assembly is currently being formed. Meanwhile, contrary to last year's financial ratings, which called Venezuela a high risk for investment, Interamerican Development Bank President Enrique Iglesias in late May expressed the bank's-- and the market's-- confidence in Chavez' economic program.

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