Analyzing Chávez’s foreign policy

[Zorro]

Interesting commentary.

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How to determine what the “real” Venezuelan foreign policy is?

Certainly understanding what drives the mercurial architect of that policy, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, is one way of unraveling the nature of his foreign policies. Beware, however, of excessively psychologistic conclusions, such as diagnoses of “narcissism” or “megalomania.”

Most politicians are driven by some inner urge for power. This has been particularly true of those Latin American leaders we call caudillos. English historian S. E. Finer called them “men on horseback” in order to indicate their origins in Catholic Spain’s centuries of war against the Moors. More than a socialist or any other political label, Chávez is pure caudillo and shows the propensity of the caudillo: continuismo, the urge to perpetuate his power. Beyond caudillismo, how else to explain his foreign policy? We suggest three fundamental approaches.

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Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/08/2057935/analyzing-chavezs-foreign-policy.html