A Fresh Start for U.S.-Venezuelan Relations?

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died after a long bout with cancer, ending the left-wing strongman’s fourteen year rule. While popular among his people – particularly among the poor and the working classes – Chavez was a despot. Like Hitler, he used being popularly elected as an excuse to circumvent the nation’s constitution and become a dictator. Despite what apologists such as actor Sean Penn might say, Venezuela under Chavez was not an electoral democracy. Its elections favor government-backed candidates and separation of powers is nearly nonexistent. Chavez’s Venezuela was a corrupt police state without a free press. Chavez also favored a policy of nationalization of industry and ushered in a failing economy with high inflation. With its oil wealth, Venezuela was able to fund Marxism in several other Latin American countries.

From the point of view of the United States, the question is whether better relations can be forged with the next leader the oil rich South American nation. An election is likely to be held in Venezuela within the next 90 days.

The Bush administration was allegedly tied to the Venezuelan coup attempt against Chavez in 2002. According to The Observer, it was Bush administration official Elliot Abrams – infamous for his role in the Iran Contra Affair – who gave the go ahead for the attempted coup. The blowback from this attempted coup was the creation of poor relations with Venezuela. The situation was similar to how the failed Bay of Pigs led to decades of poor relations with Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

President Obama will have the opportunity to forge better relations with Chavez’s ultimate successor. Although the United States is Venezuela’s most important trading partner, the United States currently has no Ambassador to Venezuela. The United States imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s state run oil company in 2011 for delivering blending components for gasoline to Iran. In a December 2012 interview with Univision, President Obama said:

The most important thing is to remember that the future of Venezuela should be in the hands of the Venezuelan people. We've seen from Chávez in the past authoritarian policies, suppression of dissent.

Given President Obama’s lackluster handling of foreign policy during his first four years in office, there is little reason to believe that he will be able to succeed in bringing Venezuela closer to the United States.