Foreign Life Aſt er Chavez
Now that Venezuela’s vehemently anti-U.S. leader has died, what will become of the oil-rich South American country?
T BY LISA BARNES
he beatification of venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez was a sight to behold. And the state funeral following his March 5 death from cancer was the place to be seen. Actor Sean Penn and for-
mer Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. were among the VIPs on hand. Over 50 state delegations arrived to extoll the purveyor of “socialism for the 21st century” — including Cuba’s Raul Castro and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Only two nations, Canada and the United States, had
the temerity to criticize the Chavez regime. Mobs of Venezuelans, many of them proudly sport-
ing the fl aming red apparel of the Chavistas, waited for hours just to view the charismatic leader’s body. “Chavez is being virtually deifi ed by the Ven- ezuelan state,” The Wall Street Journal reported. But what followed his passing was
an altogether diff erent deathwatch: How long, analysts pondered, could Venezuela’s economic house of cards remain standing? Especially as the measures needed to resuscitate it were widely expected to trigger civil unrest. “It is a 100 percent chance there will
be some civil unrest,” Karen Hooper, director of Latin America analysis for the STRATFOR intelligence fi rm says.
40 NEWSMAX | MAY 2013
“The question is, How much?” In a country wracked by over 20
percent infl ation, where people con- sider 9-cents-a-gallon gasoline to be an entitlement, there could be little doubt that the clock on social upheaval was ticking. Venezuela, a country with vast oil reserves — believed to be greater than those of even Saudi Arabia — has been brought to its knees economically. How will the passing of arguably the most anti-Ameri-
HANDPICKED HEIR Nicolas Maduro, left, with Chavez. Above, Venezeula’s money machine, PDVSA, pumps oil in Caracas.
can fi gure in the Western Hemisphere change the world’s geopolitical chessboard? Even before Chavez died, reality had been knocking on Venezuela’s door for a long time. The man expected to deal with the wreckage Chavez left
Cuba Cozies Up to Heir Apparent C
uba’s ruling Castro brothers did their best to deify strongman
Hugo Chavez. Thousands queued up in downtown Havana to shuf le past a mere picture of the smiling Venezuelan president, flanked by stoic military honor guards. A 21-gun salute reverberated from the Havana fortress. The push to induct Chavez into the
global despots’ hall of fame was hardly unexpected. After all, Venezuela’s
economic support for cash-starved Cuba has been estimated at $10 billion a year. The largesse included 100,000
barrels of oil per day. About 40 percent of that oil is sold by Cuba on world markets, to raise much-needed cash. When the demise of the Soviet Union cut off the subsidies that kept the island from sinking, it was Chavez who stepped forward to save Cuba. Without that assistance, many observers believe
OIL FIELD/AP IMAGES / MADURO/DAVID MERCADO/REUTERS/LANDOV
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