A Report from Colorado Springs

                                          The Broadmoor facing the Rocky Mountains.

As the plane descends on Colorado Springs, the city is seen nested on the foothills of Pikes Peak, a 14,000-foot granite face of the Rocky Mountain. The vertical, red sandstone outcrops of the Garden of the Gods add to a magnificent landscape that combines high mountains, dramatic geology and a wonderful valley. The sky was deep blue, the air was crisp and clean and the intense luminosity typical of the higher altitudes made me feel like I had been given unlimited vision.

I was invited by the World Affairs Council of Colorado Springs to give a talk on the Geopolitics of Energy and Venezuela. I was met at the airport by Richard Soudriette, my dear friend from the University of Tulsa, who later became a leader of the U.S. Peace Corps and an expert on international electoral systems. I stayed at the legendary hotel, The Broadmoor, built in the early 20th century by Spencer Penrose. This hotel  gave origin to a whole new section of the city. Mr. Penrose and his wife Julie became a formidable driving force in the development of the community. The impact of these benefactors continues to be felt today, through the foundation they left behind. Staying at the Broadmoor is a unique experience. Here the buildings, man-made lakes and carefully maintained grounds complement beautifully the majestic natural setting. I spent some of the best 30 minutes of my life just sitting under a huge Siberian Elm, absorbing the view and enjoying the almost church-like tranquility of the place while watching the deer strolling by.

I arrived  Monday, September 27, just one day after the Venezuelan legislative elections. The night before I had had little sleep as I waited until 3 a.m., in vain, for the official election results. I had to do with very preliminary and somewhat contradictory estimates given both by the government party and the opposition. Although the Venezuelan Electoral Council claims to be “the best in the world” it never generates results in time. Official silence extends hour after hour, which increases tension and suspicion from Venezuelans who are fully aware that the system is heavily biased in favor of the Chavez regime. To use the word fraud would not be an exaggeration. This fraud is committed in several ways before, during and after the electoral event. Before the event the media, almost totally in the hands of the regime, saturates citizens with government propaganda. Electoral rules are systematically broken by the government while the Electoral Council, in the hands of Chavez, conveniently looks the other way. Registered voters comprise nearly 100 percent, perhaps over 100 percent, of eligible voters, a statistical impossibility. There are many cases of persons who appear to be registered multiple times and, therefore, can vote more than once. All in all this is an electoral register that would have made Huey Long feel proud. Now we know that the Venezuelan opposition obtained almost 53 percent of the votes in the election, versus 47 percent for the government but, due to gerrymandering imposed only months ago, the Chavez party obtained 30 more seats in the Assembly than the opposition.

The Colorado Springs audience was wonderful. I shared with them some thoughts on geopolitics of energy, mentioning the fact that producing and consuming countries often have different cultures, political systems, ideologies and, even, religions. Their national interests inevitably differ. These differences carry all the potential for conflict, as oil becomes scarcer and both producers and consumers feel the need to control the sources of supply.

I talked to the audience about Venezuela. A country of young people, I said, but not a young country. When Chicago was founded Caracas was already over 250 years old. Today Chicago has a GDP that is almost twice as large as the Venezuelan GDP. Why have we lagged so far behind? I oversimplified and told the audience we were conquered, not settled. What prevailed in Venezuela from the outset was a mining camp mentality, one that exists even today, because of the oil industry being an almost sole source of income. We have also been afflicted with underdeveloped citizenship. Societies simply cannot prosper unless they are primarily made up of citizens.

I described how Venezuela generates a dictator every 40 years or so. After dictator Perez Jimenez was ousted in 1958, Venezuela became a model democracy for about 20 years (Betancourt, Leoni, Caldera 1). However, the oil crisis of the 1970’s gave the country three times more income within a very short time and the result was disastrous. An attempt was made by the government to transform the country into an industrial powerhouse (The Great Venezuela) that left us in debt and poorer than before. From then on, I explained, Venezuelan democracy went downhill until 1998, when the new dictator, Hugo Chavez, came into power. Although Chavez was elected he has become illegitimate due to his authoritarian posture.

I described Chavez’s main objectives: Consolidating power at home, creating a socialist block in Latin America and promoting an anti-U.S. global alliance. I mentioned that these were exactly the same objectives  Fidel Castro had in the 1960’s. Of course, Chavez has had a lot more money in his pockets and could establish a strategy of handouts both at home and abroad that gave him some early successes. He financed presidential candidates in Argentina, Mexico, Peru, El Salvador, Bolivia and Nicaragua. His popularity in Venezuela has reamined rather high, as should be expected given his prodigality. All in all he has had access to an income of about one trillion dollars in 12 years. Most of this money has gone to his ideological friends, to the poor of Venezuela in the shape of day-to-day handouts or has been stolen by a new “revolutionary” bourgeoisie. There is little new infrastructure, no new hospitals or schools or few new roads. Inflation and crime are the highest in the hemisphere.

Because of his numerous errors he has been losing political ground at home and abroad during the last three years, as Sunday's election clearly demonstrated and as shown by the loss of political allies in the region. The U.S. has chosen not have a clearly defined policy towards Venezuela but play the game of wait and see. This policy of having no policy seems to be working well, as Chavez seems to be heading to an implosion in the medium term (2-4 years). In my talk I predicted that he either would lose the presidential elections of 2012 or he would be ousted before the elections.

I felt very much at ease with the Colorado Springs audience. They are a very cordial and well traveled group and they proved to be quite well informed about Latin America. I hope I can visit with them again in the future.