Some Wine, Conversations, Diplomatic Arrogance
Andy

After the Day`s heat the night here is so welcome, with it`s breeze and clean air. As we move to the Northwest of Venezuela, the temperatures rise and the land looks more like a desert. This Posada that we`ve been staying at going on three nights is the most social one we`ve been at. We had Christmas eve dinner last night with Eric, a French expat who owns and runs the posada with his Valencian wife, Eric`s mother visting from France, Four wild Basque tourists who supplied Spanish and Chilean wine and Ron (Rum) all night, 2 German hippy punks who had been in Merida for 4 months studying Spanish and Latin American literature, and a French Canadian Diplomat who works for the Canadian Embassy in Caracas. Christmas is huge in Venezuela, so it was nice to have a party scene of internationals to share it with.

The Basques spoke only Spanish, in a really fast Basque accent, but the Germans spoke perfect English and seemed delighted to switch to English from Spanish. The Conversations with the Canadian Diplomat turned a bit contentious. From the start she seemed to look down on us. Its just a sense I had, and in later discussions her tone only confirmed this. I told her about the video that we hope to edit dealing with the Bolivarian Project, elections, etc. Dawn asked here about her views on what was happening with Chavez, etc. She came down harshly on Chavez, despite her pround claims that Canada is much more open, diplomatically speaking, than the US. She really sounded like she could be from the US State Dept. Tariq Ali, in his book Pirates of the Carribean, uses the term "Washington Consensus" to describe the neoliberal doctrine that became a monolithic model for developing countries after the cold war. He mentions briefly that Canada is right in line with the US when it comes to the "Washington Consensus". So it started to make sense that the Canadian diplomat`s views on the Bolivarian Revolution would be so negative.

She said that under Chavez "the space of democracy is shrinking". To support this she talked about NGOs (non-governmental organizations) not being allowed to function freely in Venezuela, and the fact that the government acts in an intimidating manner towards citizens who work for the government and/or recieve services from the government. In addition, she talked about the petition that was used to attempt to recall Chavez in the national referendum, 2004. She said that the names on the signature are publically available in books and data bases, and this makes the opposition very fearful of reprisals.

When we asked follow-up questions, such as whether the petitions were indeed aknowledged as public documents (as they are in the US), and whether any president in Venezuelan history has allowed for a process such as a recall referendum, She snapped "really, how can you understand the situation without knowing Spanish?" At this point she talked about how Chavez is a polarizing figure, about how he befriends dictators like in Iran. I asked if she thought that Iran was a US created distraction from the failure in Iraq. At this point she rolled her eyes with such exaggerated disbelief that it was clear the conversation was over.

It`s funny to feel on a personal level the arrogance of the neoliberal doctrine. I'm not under the impression we`re any kind of experts on Latin American Politics, or that it wouldn't help immensely to be fluent in Spanish in order to understand the Bolivarian Process and the effects its having on the world. But we are learning the language slowly, we have participated in groups with translators, and have studied the situation to some extent. The Canadian diplomat`s responses in the conversation said, to me, that in her world view there is no room to challenge the Washington Consensus. This in spite of the fact that its presumably her job, as a diplomat working for the Canadian Embassy, to understand the dynamics of Venezuelan Politics.