The Dutch are deeply concerned about Venezuela’s renewed threats to take over the nearby island of Curacao as its dictator, Hugo Chavez, flexes his military muscles with an unprecedented arms buildup and condemns the Dutch for their colonialism on the island. Seeking to add more territory of his own, his stated aim is “regional integration,” which is an emerging term that bears more watching. One Chavista foreign ministry official explained it this week as the growing federation between Cuba and Venezuela, which he euphemized as “alternative models.” But his description of that “alternative” was very specific: the Cubanization of the country.

Francisco Toro, who is a Venezuelan in the Netherlands, says it’s a surprisingly prominent issue in the country, but for now, thinks it may be politicians posturing for election concerns. Posturing or not, it’s something that people running competitively for office are betting that voters will respond to. In parliament, Francisco reports, the official scene looked like this:

Yesterday, members representing a majority in the upper house of the Dutch parliament called on the defense and foreign affairs ministers to get on top of the Chavez threat. Citing Chavez’s recent arms purchases, Liberal (in euro-speak, right-wing) member of parliament Zsolt Szabo called Dutch defenses on the island a “swiss cheese” and urged the government to take control of defending the islands.

The U.S. has stepped up its military activity in the region, probably in response to its NATO ally’s concerns. I don’t think this would be merely to help some parliamentarian get elected, not at the expense of Iraq, where every troop counts and forces are overstretched.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, Chavez has exploded as a campaign issue, with the right-leaning PAN party of Vicente Fox using Chavez’s raging diatribe against Fox last November at the hippie-studded Summit of the Americas as campaign material, apparently to scare or warn the voters into voting for PAN. This clearly is an indication that Chavez’s efforts to intimidate Fox have backfired badly, because Chavez apparently is a very effective campaign tool for the right wing. Besides that, the charges that Chavez is meddling, based on this reputable Mexican news source, seems to be real and an investigation has been sought.

In Bolivia, opposition congressmen are expressing concerns about a new ID program to be administered by Venezuelan and Cuban “technicians” which is likely to facilitate election fraud in congressional elections. That shows how far “fraud” and “Chavez” and “Venezuela” have come to be associated with each other in foreign politics. That item is here.

Chavez, who made filthy, uncouth, sexist comments about leading candidate Lourdes Flores – comments that actually were about having sex with the woman – is also despised in Peru. Alek Boyd has some descriptions of all the meddling charges used against him in that campaign, and in other countries.

Clearly, Chavez is not a figure of love around the world, but becoming synomymous with different aspects of international intimidation. These don’t involve the U.S., but other states. He’s a campaign stock figure and an accused meddler. This trend is not going to stop in the foreseeable future. It will also probably cost him potential allies that he might need in some UN vote or for some IMF bailout, given that he is spending his country into the ground with low-value-added, pure-consumption, zero-investment value handouts that will benefit mainly a small party elite.

Offending power players can probably be done for a certain amount of time, but like teeth, they can only be pulled out once. He trades with the U.S. and makes oodles of cash off our oil habit, so he’s probably thinking that he can get away with offending anyone. Make no mistake though: the U.S. is seeking to forge an alliance against the communist caudillo and so long as people respond to fear images, it’s likely to foster the sought-after united front at some point.
So much for his phony “revolution.” But it does explain the flip side of his weapons buildup as his response.