Venezuela and Ukraine: Upending Washington's Best Laid Plans (CartaMaior, Brazil)
"Beyond the disparities that distinguish the two
situations, there is a common denominator: both Venezuela and Ukraine are geostrategic
and energy targets of an aggressive U.S. foreign policy, and both have challenged,
in different ways, the course laid out by the global hegemon."
A student activist opposed to the government of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro: While the situations in Venezuela and Ukraine have dramatic differences, Professor Larissa Ramina writes that there are also striking differences.
"Venezuela
and Ukraine are completely different," said President Dilma.
And rightly so. However, beyond the disparities that distinguish the two
situations, there is a common denominator: both Venezuela and Ukraine are geostrategic
and energy targets of an aggressive U.S. foreign policy.
Since
Hugo Chávez' was first elected, Venezuela has been the scene of repeated
attempts to destabilize its democratically-elected, socialist-oriented
government. It is worth remembering that, according to the Economic Commission
for Latin America and the Caribbean, since the emergence of Chavismo,
Venezuela has had the fairest income distribution in Latin America. Even after
the death of the leader, the opposition has been repeatedly defeated at the
polls, and what remains is an illegitimate alternative driven by the U.S.
government.
The
motivations that led to this interventionism are easily understood, since we're
talking about a country with the largest oil reserves in the world (even if it
is heavy oil that costs a lot to refine), the geographic location of which makes
it a neighbor to the United States, and unlike a decade ago, now exports most
of its production to China. And remember that at the turn of the 21st century, Chávez'
Venezuela was the only country in Latin America to oppose attempts by the
United States to extend the directives of the Washington Consensus
to the entire continent through its pretentious Free Trade
Area of the Americas.
Since
then, the rise of various post-neoliberal governments in the region has allowed
for a change in tone for the process of South-South integration, symbolized by
the creation of Mercoser and Union of South American Nations,
in place of free trade agreements with the hegemonic power. The result has been
the progressive isolation of the United States from its strategic sphere of influence:
Latin America.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
On
the other side, Ukraine is a country of extreme strategic relevance, and is vital
to Russia's security. While the intention is to depict the situation as simply a majority of the population wanting to integrate into an economic
bloc - the European Union - the truth is that E.U. is deep in crisis. It suffers very high rates of unemployment
and has a president [José Manuel Barroso] who intends
to prevent Ukraine from entering into an alliance with Russia - and U.S.
interference makes the roots of the crisis far more complex.
U.S. meddling in Ukraine are due not only to fears that Russian
influence will reassert itself in the post-Soviet space, which is the purpose
of seeking to integrate Ukraine into the military structure of NATO, but also the
strengthening of Europe as an interlocutor of Russia on strategic issues (to
the detriment of the ever-present mediation of the United States), the fear of
a rapprochement between Germany and Russia, and most of all, the energy factor.
Obviously, Russia won't quietly allow a pro-Western government to rule a
country so strategically vital to its security. Since the collapse of Soviet
Union, more than 80 percent of Russian natural gas has been transported to Europe through
Ukraine.
So,
Venezuela and Ukraine do have something in common: their importance to the Western
world from a geostrategic and energy point of view, and the fact that they have
challenged, in different ways, the course laid out by the global hegemon.
*Larissa Ramina is Professor of International Law at UFPR and UniBrasil.
