Anthony L. Hall is a descendant of the Turks & Caicos Islands, international lawyer and political consultant - headquartered in Washington DC - who publishes his own Internet Weblog at www.theipinionsjournal.com offering commentaries on current events from a Caribbean perspective

But, of more interest (or concern - as the case might be) to the people of the Caribbean, he also gave notice that he intends to redouble his efforts to enlist our governments into his coalition of the willing to counter every regional initiative America supports. (In this regard, consider: Chávez’s PetroCaribe versus USAID/Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act; or his Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas versus the US Free Trade Area of the Americas .)

Therefore, it behooves our leaders to weigh carefully the benefits, implications and possible consequences of vesting our national destinies in alliance with Chávez.  After all, notwithstanding the instructive axiom “better the devil you know than the one you don’t” - in a previous article entitled PetroCaribe: Let’s look this gift horse in the mouth - I delineated some of the substantive reasons why we should wonder whether he is willing, or indeed able, to fulfill his lofty promises of financial aid and political solidarity. 

Moreover, they should be mindful that our antipathy towards the US stems primarily from our pragmatic opposition to the policies of the Bush Administration, which, thankfully, has only 2 more (lame-duck) years to live;  Whereas, Chávez’s antipathy stems from his ideological opposition, not merely to those policies, but to America itself.  In fact, it is his adherence to the unadulterated tenets of communism (including its discredited hallmark: collectivized farming) that informs his anti-Americanism.

Ultimately, though, we must reconcile our perceived national and regional interests with the inescapable dilemma posed by the following question: 

If, as it seems, we are fated to be pawns on this hemisphere’s geopolitical chess board, do we want Chávez to be our king, or remain unmoored and hope that the next US president/king (imagine Hillary Clinton or, better, Barrack Obama) invites us on board to pursue our interest as a part of a new American foreign policy strategy?

I respectfully suggest that we should float (or flirt) a while and seek common cause with the next president of the United States...

That said, let’s give this devil his due:

Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives and one of the shrewdest and most respected politicians in American history, is credited with coining the aphorism:  All politics is local.

Alas, this is an axiom those of us who harboured delusions of an upset last Sunday clearly forgot. Because, where Chávez’s behavior on the international stage made us see him as nothing but a boorish Castro wannabe, his behaviour at home induced peasant farmers - who comprise the overwhelming majority of Venezuela’s electorate - to see him as a latter-day Robin Hood.

Moreover, precisely because "all politics is local", the abysmal failure of his regional Merry Men - in places like Bolivia - to emulate the way Chávez caters to the poor or the way he runs through diplomatic protocols like a bull in a china shop has had no adverse impact on his popularity at home.

Meanwhile, as competent a challenger as Manuel Rosales may have been, he is more suited to be Venezuela’s ambassador to the developed world than its president. And with Chávez ruling his country like a truly benign despot – afflicting the comfortable (by, inter alia, confiscating their land to redistribute amongst peasants on newly-parceled collectivized farms) and comforting the afflicted (by, inter alia, using Venezuela’s oil wealth to provide comprehensive welfare programs) -  Rosales did not have a chance.

Therefore, here’s to Hugo Chávez: the duly re-elected president (for life?) of Venezuela, undisputed heir to Fidel Castro and perennial pain in the ass to President George W. Bush and his successors...

NOTE: Henceforth, I shall refrain from calling Chávez a “Castro wannabe”. After all, his regional and international influence has already surpassed that which Castro exercised at the zenith of his reign. And, having won two democratic elections at home, Chávez has earned the right to be distinguished, as a benign demagogue, from Castro – who was never anything but a ruthless dictator for whom democratic elections were the plague.

Related Articles:
PetroCaribe: Let’s look this gift horse in the mouth
Chávez replaces Castro as America’s enemy #1 in the Americas...
Bolivia's woes expose Chavez’s socialist counter-revolution as little more than a one-man three-ring circus...