Oil resource, military

In addition to Hugo Chavez’s own will to form a government for the people, he clearly has advantages that few Third World heads of state possess. Two that immediately stand out are Venezuela’s oil resource and the special character of Venezuela’s military. Although Chavez has not made a move to nationalize privately owned big industry – a hallmark of what we know as “socialism”- he is using oil revenues to finance his various projects. And he can bank on the military’s allegiance because, unlike other Latin American militaries (indeed, unlike the Philippine military), Venezuela’s military remains independent from U.S.’ influence. It has not, for example, sent soldiers for training to the infamous School of the Americas, now renamed, for cosmetic purposes, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security. In their classes, moreover, soldiers learn about their country’s independence struggles. What Chavez has striven to accomplish, then, is a salubrious civilian/military melding in which soldiers work side by side with ordinary folks in their many people’s ventures. Such mutual trust is particularly necessary in light of the very real danger posed by the small elite who, except for U.S. superpower backing, would count for virtually nothing.

It must be remarked that Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution is completely indigenous and follows no existing model. Its heroes are 19th century Venezuelan figures: Simon Bolivar, independence fighter against Spain whose goal was national independence and regional unity; Simon Rodriguez, Bolivar’s mentor whose injunction was for Venezuela to construct for itself an original philosophical foundation for independence; and Ezequiel Zamora, peasant leader who fought against the landed oligarchy. Consequently,

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