Chávez’ North is the South An analysis of the internal and external policy of Bolivarian Venezuela in the Hugo Chávez era M.G.E. van der Velden Maastricht, March 2009 M.G.E. van der Velden Human Geography Master specialisation “Conflicts, Territories & Identities” Radboud University Nijmegen Supervisor: Dr. O. Kramsch Senior Lecturer Department of Human Geography Maastricht, the Netherlands, March 2009 Abstract In this Master thesis Venezuela’s internal and external policy under President Hugo Chávez has been analysed to determine to what extent it is are explained by respectively the Marxist theories of state, and critical geopolitics. The internal policy has been assessed by measuring the degree of state transformation with the help of eight indicators selected from Marxist theories of state, such as the work of Bob Jessop. The study of the external policy has been twofold, with practical geopolitics, focusing on the government’s own policy, and discourse analysis, examining President Chávez’ discourse, serving as the theoretical background. In the final chapter it has been argued that in Venezuela has is a very limited degree of state transformation or institutional and structural reforms, and that despite some promising and positive developments that set out Venezuela in the region, society and the state and its bureaucracies suffer from corruption, financial waste, inefficiency, extreme social and political polarisation, a certain degree of conflict of interests and a lack of institutionalisation of new laws and regulations. The degree of organising of the chavistas is still limited and suffers from several flaws, but elections have given the government a strong mandate for change. Meanwhile, the government’s room for manoeuvre has increased since the nationalisation of oil company PDVSA, and though many social programs have a profound effect on the life of millions of people they are ad-hoc in character. The country’s external policy is ambiguous, has a lack of focus and the multiple aims have hurt its effectiveness. The external policy serves as legitimacy for the internal policy, but several discrepancies between discourse and practice have being damaging. The study has pointed out that the focus of the Marxist theories of state is too statist and the theories cannot grasp the case of Venezuela and mainly serve for its original purpose of explaining Western European affairs. It also shows that analysing discourse is necessary and complements the study of geopolitical practice. Resumen Este trabajo ha analizado la gestión interna y externa de Venezuela bajo el Presidente Hugo Chávez para determinar hasta que punto las teorías marxistas del estado y la geopolítica critica explican a las dos respectivamente. La gestión interna ha sido examinado a través de analizar la amplitud de transformación del estado , con la ayuda de ocho indicadores seleccionados por las teorías marxistas del estado, como en la obra de Bob Jessop. El análisis de la gestión externa tiene dos partes que forman el fundamento teorico, de un lado la práctica geopolítica, a través de la cual se investigan las redes oficiales del gobierno, y de otro lado el análisis del discurso, que examina el discurso de Chávez. En la conclusión se sostiene que hay una limitada trasnformación del estado y limitadas reformas institucionales y estructurales. A pesar de algunos cambios positivos, la sociedad y el estado con sus burocracias, sufren corrupción, malversaciones financieras, ineficaz, polarisación social y política, un cierto nivel de conflictos de interés y una falta de institucionalización de las nuevas leyes y regulaciones. El gobierno tiene mejores posibilidades para maniobrar gracias a la nacionalización de la empresa del petroleo PDVSA. Los programas sociales tienen un efecto profundo y positivo para milliones de venezolanos, pero son de caracter ad hoc. La organización de los chavistas está limitada y sufre de algunos problemas graves, pero al mismo tiempo las elecciones han entregado al gobierno un mandato fuerte para realizar cambios. La gestión externa está ambigua y no obstante tenga muchos objetivos oficiales, su efectividad está perjuiciada por la falta de enfoque. La gestión externa sirve para dar legitimidad a la gestión interna, pero las discrepancias entre discurso y practica han tenido efectos dañosos. La tesis aclara también que el enfoque de las teorías marxistas del estado es demasiado estatista y que las teorías no pueden explicar bien el caso de Venezuela porque son mejor dispuestas para explicar la situación del Europa Occidental. También es cierto que para analizar la política externa de un país es necesario complementar la practica geopolitca con el análisis del discurso. Contents Foreword 1 List of abbreviations 3 Introduction 4 Chapter 1 1. Methodology 6 1.1. Operationalisation 6 1.1.1. Research goal and research question 6 1.1.2. Sub-questions 7 1.1.3. The concepts of internal and external policy 8 1.2. Research type 10 Chapter 2 2. Theories 11 2.1. State transformation 11 2.1.2. Marxist theories of state 12 2.1.3. Measuring state transformation 14 2.2. Critical geopolitics 17 2.2.1. Discourse analysis and practical geopolitics 18 2.2.2. Analysing Venezuela’s foreign policy: 19 Practical geopolitics and discourse analysis Chapter 3 3. The Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela 21 3.1. History of the pre-Chávez period 21 3.2. Rise to power of Hugo Chávez 24 3.3. Socialism 25 3.4. Economic policy 26 3.4.1. Nationalisations and centralisation 32 3.5. Social policy 34 3.6. Redistribution 36 3.6.1. Missions 38 3.7. Environmental policy 43 3.8. Political situation 44 3.9. Democracy 50 3.10. Elections 55 3.10.1. Elections 1998-2003 56 3.10.2. Elections 2004-2009 56 3.11. The Bolivarian Constitution 59 3.12. Polarisation: chavistas and opposition 61 3.12.1. Chavistas 61 3.12.2. Opposition 65 3.12.3. Including the excluded 66 3.13. Organising and institutionalising 67 3.14. Conclusion 70 3.14.1. Evaluation of the indicators 75 Chapter 4 4. Exporting the Bolivarian Revolution? 77 4.1. Practical geopolitics 77 4.1.1. Aspects of Venezuelan foreign policy 78 4.1.2. Latin American integration 80 4.1.2.1. Caribbean and Central America 82 4.1.2.2. Organisation of American States 83 4.1.2.3. Mercosur 84 4.1.2.4. Andean Community of Nations 84 4.1.2.5. UNASUR 85 4.1.2.6. Alternativa Bolivariana 87 4.1.2. Relations with Cuba, Colombia and the United States 87 4.1.2.1. Cuba 88 4.1.2.2. Colombia 89 4.1.2.3. United States 91 4.1.3. Extra-regional policy 96 4.2. Discourse analysis 98 4.3. Conclusion 103 4.3.1. Evaluation of the indicators 104 4.3.1.1. Government aims 2001-2007 105 4.3.1.2. Government aims 2007-2013 106 4.3.2. Discourse analysis 106 Chapter 5 5. Conclusion 107 5.1. Theories of state transformation 111 5.2. Theory of practical geopolitics and discourse analysis 113 5.3. Limitations and recommendations for further research 115 Appendix 118 I. Information or Disinformation: the role of the media in reporting 118 II. Results Presidential elections Venezuela 1998-2009 120 III. Venezuela’s GDP per capita in comparative perspective 121 Bibliography 123 Foreword In September 2007, my first ideas for the Master thesis came about and my main interest was to uncover why Latin America had made an apparent swing to the left, a sudden break from the past as it seemed from the outset. This rather grand idea of wanting to catch all what was happening on the continent stemmed from several reasons. Being a student in Human Geography, specialising in domestic and international conflicts and having a profound interest in geopolitics and international relations, for me it was rather obvious that I wanted to dive into Latin America. With conflicts raging in the Middle East and several deep-rooted conflicts in Africa resurfacing in the first years of the new millennium, in my opinion Latin America remained understudied, at least in Europe. Ever since the civil war in Guatemala more or less formally ended in 1996, attention has slowly drifted away from the continent towards the Middle East. Geographically Africa and the Middle East are closer to Europe than is Latin America and this might explain the difference in attention the region has received, especially compared to the United States where its southern neighbours were indeed better considered, though the George W. Bush administration had neglected the continent in its foreign policy. While Latin America may have faded from the news, it still remains ever as important to study, as its extreme inequality levels, its economic potential and vast, ample resources give it all the merit for renewed interest. Latin America was not an obvious choice for writing a thesis in a Master specialisation programme titled “Conflicts, Territories and Identities” when considered from the surface. However, those mere three words are very apt when speaking about the region. There are multiple conflicts throughout the region, being economic, social, environmental, civil or political in nature and being intrastate, interstate and extra-regional in character. In this geopolitical game of power, dozens of questions of space and time are prominent, ranging from natural degradation to minority rights and from globalisation to cross-border-crime. While Samuel P. Huntington made a disturbing and wholly unrealistic statement by defining the region as a single ‘civilization’, a region that in his earlier work was even considered as a corruption of the Western Christian civilisation. The continent is a unique mix of identities that has shaped over the ages, from prehistoric settlement to modern-age colonisation and mass emigration from Europe, Asia and Africa, producing multinational or pluri-ethnic societies that differ markedly within the national borders and between the continent’s nations.