The Foreign Service Journal, May 2005

ers, democracy’s cornerstone. In that sense, he is creating a state that looks more and more like Cuba. Washing- ton obviously is anxious about this trend, but the more than 30 other democracies in the hemisphere have remained silent. None seems eager to take Chavez on. Castro’s ambitions have always extended far beyond Cuba’s borders and, likewise, Chavez sees Venezuela as too small a stage. He is attempt- ing to revive the Bolivarian dream of the “true unification” of South America, presumably under Venez- uelan leadership. He has also been sending mixed signals about the long- running leftist rebel campaign to top- ple the government in neighboring Colombia. Chavez insists he is neu- tral, but his military was discovered in December to have been harboring Rodrigo Granda, a top official of Colombia’s FARC rebel group. An outraged Colombian President Alvaro Uribe arranged for Granda to be kidnapped and taken back to Colombia. For his part, Chavez con- sidered the Colombian-sponsored abduction of Granda on Venezuelan turf to be an unwarranted intrusion. Early tensions over the issue have abated but Colombian suspicions about its eastern neighbor run high, fed by, among other things, Venezuela’s plan to buy 100,000 rifles from Russia. Colombian officials worry that the weaponry is intended for the FARC. Chavez seems most comfortable not with fellow Latin American democrats but with leaders, often half a world away, who rule with a heavy hand. Besides Cuba, a partial list of his overseas stops in recent months includes Iran, Russia, Libya and China. A trade deal with Beijing will permit Chinese access to oil fields in Venezuela and investment in new refineries. To sweeten the deal, Venezuela, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, has also offered to supply M A Y 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 67