The Foreign Service Journal, April 2019

38 APRIL 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL How Misguided Tropical Socialism Destroyed One of Latin America’s Most Promising Countries Oliver Griffith was an FSO from 1985 to 2007 with postings in Rwanda, Venezuela, Germany, the Central African Republic, Trinidad, France, Uruguay, Guatemala and Washington, D.C., mostly as an economic officer. After that he served as managing director of the American Chamber of Commerce in France for three years and head of communications and public affairs in Europe for the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) for six years. He now works as an adviser for the Arrica50 infrastructure fund and as a freelance consultant. I n 1987, as a young diplomat, I was fortunate to be posted to the U.S. embassy in Caracas. It was a nice change frommy first assignment, Rwanda, which, contrary to thriving Venezuela, was a bas- ket case at the time. Little did I know that the two countries would soon take diametrically opposed paths to development. Both their longtime lead- ers—Hugo Chavez and Paul Kagame—had popu- lar mandates of sorts; both became increasingly FEATURE dictatorial; and both used island nations as economic models. The difference is that Chavez chose Cuba, a failed socialist state, while Kagame looked to Singapore, a highly successful free-market economy. The results are clear: Venezuela went from being South America’s richest country to one of the poorest, while Rwanda became the unlikely star of a continent plagued by the kinds of leaders that Chavez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro, became. In fact, in the country rankings by interna- tional organizations Venezuela now actively competes with Africa’s least successful states for the bottom rungs, while Rwanda has soared to the top of African listings. Indeed, sound leadership from the top, whether fully democratic or not, has once again proven to be the key ingredient for suc- cessful development. In 1987 Venezuela was still a blessed place. It was taking full advantage of its tremendous resources, not just oil and The Tragedy BY OL I VER GR I F F I TH