Simple Mirror Games

Washington and Caracas Need One Another

There is a diplomatic affront, and for once it isn’t WikiLeaks’ fault. The two countries’ argument over the occupation of diplomatic posts is not unusual. That they chose this moment to bring it to light on the world stage brings the problem into the realm of “embarrassing revelations.”

The argument began with an indiscretion. In the course of his job, the U.S. diplomat spoke of a close relationship between the Venezuelan military and the FARC guerrilla forces in Colombia. Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez then described [diplomat Larry] Palmer as a pariah; Washington answered that with sanctions.

The friction is only a game, because Washington and Caracas need one another — not only because the U.S. is the world’s largest purchaser of Venezuelan oil. Chavez uses anti-imperialistic rhetoric in order weaken the American-friendly domestic opposition and to strengthen his own chances of winning. In Washington, however, the enemy image of Chavez helps to justify the president’s Latin American policy.

The U.S. still builds patronage 200 years after the end of the colonial era in Latin America and has a strong military presence in, for example, Colombia and Peru. The U.S. diplomacy is far from being on the same level as the countries to the south — to their own detriment, since that weakens Washington’s relationship to economically ambitious countries.