Analyst: Fall of Gaddafi's regime means a defeat for Chávez

Chávez gave Muammar Gaddafi the sword of Venezuelan Independence hero Simón Bolívar in 2009 (File photo: AFP)

World Affairs
At a time when even the Arab League has expressed its full support to the Libyan Transitional National Council, the Venezuelan government is the only administration that has publicly deplored the fall of Muammar Gaddafi regime.

Professor Demetrio Boersner, an expert in foreign affairs and former Venezuelan ambassador, thinks that President Hugo Chávez and ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) "have been supporting so feverishly Gaddafi's statements and have defended so stubbornly the Libyan strongman that his fall will be a political defeat for them vis-à-vis the country and the international opinion."

In Boersner's, the ouster of Gaddafi would be "another geopolitical blow" for Chávez and his project in Venezuela, "because Chavezism pursued the goal of creating a global alliance of nationalist socialism in Third World countries under the rule of autocrats."

Boersner does not think that Gaddafi will seek refuge in Venezuela, as he would not like to be so close to the United States.

Venezuelan government reaction

"The national head office of the party feels that what is happening in Libya consummates an onslaught on the Libyan nation and territory. It is the use of the NATO force to change the destiny of peoples," said Rodrigo Cabezas in a press conference recently called by the PSUV.

Previously, President Chávez had lambasted US imperialism and its European allies for perpetrating a "slaughter" in Libya in order to grab its oil wealth.

For his part, Venezuelan Foreign Vice-Minister for African Affairs, Reinaldo Bolívar, posted on his website portal http://reinaldobolivar.blogspot.com: "never before had the world be so ashamed of the existence of the UN Security Council." Libya, he added, "has been an ideal model to justify intervention on the excuse of people's unrest."

Last August 13, Chávez wrote a letter to Gaddafi. "May the Almighty, clement and merciful one bless you and take care of you; may He bless and protect the heroic and honorable Libyan people; a strong embrace shall go to you, Muammar, with the top, endless feeling of brotherhood. Long live to the Libyan people; long live to you, my combatant brother. Libya shall live and shall win!"