CHAVISMO!

The AP reports that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has borrowed a little Obama rhetoric and is looking to "push the reset button" on the relationship between his country and the United States, which has been tense in recent years. Now, though, a popular new American president and a global recession are giving Chavez incentives to mend fences. However, in a move that typifies the diplomatic sparring between the two countries, Chavez made his comments from Iran, where he was concluding various economic agreements.In our last print issue, I took a somewhat light-hearted look at Venezuela's efforts to improve its public image in the run-up to a recent referendum eliminating term limits for Chavez and other elected officials in the country. The piece is drawn from a breakfast event where reporters were briefed by two Venezuelan legislators on the country's democratic process.

"Venezuela is the victim of a campaign of misinformation, poor information, and sometimes disinformation," [Venezuelan Assemblyman Calixto] Ortega began, occasionally consulting a souvenir notebook from the Museum of Modern Art. "We should be given the benefit of the doubt."Doubt could only be a benefit for Chávez, a career military officer, who began his political career with an attempted coup in 1992 and spent some time in jail for the trouble. He was elected president in 1998 and remains in charge to this day, having surmounted a coup attempt, a recall vote, and a second election campaign. A democratic socialist who enacted massively popular programs to fight poverty and improve the living conditions of his people, Chávez has also passed constitutional reforms that centralized power and allowed him an 18-month period of rule by decree. In 2007, he pushed another referendum to eliminate presidential term limits and expand his powers in key areas; it was barely defeated and led to opposition protests in the streets. During that campaign, Chávez promised to rule until 2050 -- when he will be 96 years old.Despite all of this, the diplomatic rift between the U.S. and Venezuela is more rhetorical than substantive. Chávez used George W. Bush as an international foil, but the U.S. remains the largest consumer of Venezuela's oil -- the single economic factor that allows Chávez to continue the social programs that constitute his "Bolivarian revolution." With oil prices dropping and the international economy in shambles, Chávez is more dependent than ever on U.S. purchases -- not to mention that Barack Obama is actually admired in Latin America, where Bush was not. Chávez will need to carefully recalibrate his strategy abroad to maintain his popularity at home.

Do read the whole thing. And for background purposes, here is the original post where I too-casually referred to Chavez as a dictator, and a subsequent response to aggrieved commenters who questioned my characterization.

-- Tim Fernholz