President Nicólas Maduro sends a message of his loyalty to Iran.
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY
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| Todos para uno: Maduro, Cristina, Evo y Correa. |
Edward Snowden,
the former U.S. government contractor wanted for leaking sensitive national
intelligence, is a victim of "persecution" by "the world's most powerful
empire," Venezuelan President Nicólas Maduro said on Friday.
Mr. Maduro offered asylum to the fugitive, who was
running out of prospects. Nicaragua and Bolivia have chimed in with similar
offers. What plans are afoot to spirit Mr. Snowden from his Moscow airport
sanctuary—assuming he accepts refuge in Latin America—are of course secret.
Mr. Maduro would have us believe that his gesture is a
demonstration of Venezuela's commitment to free speech and its fierce opposition
to withholding information from the public. He also wants the world to know that
he disapproves of secret government intelligence-gathering operations. Funny
that.
Venezuela has expressed no such righteous indignation
about information suppression by allies. Take Argentina, which has recently
refused to allow its special prosecutor Alberto Nisman to travel to Washington
and brief a U.S. congressional committee about intelligence collected on Iranian
and Hezbollah terror cells in the Western Hemisphere. Mr. Nisman's 500-page
report on the subject is public but in a July 1 letter to the U.S. Congress he
said that by order of the Argentine attorney general he has been "denied the
authorization to testify before the honorable parliament."
Mr. Maduro's lack of concern about Argentina's
information suppression deserves attention.
His offer of refuge to Mr. Snowden is most easily
explained as an attempt to distract Venezuelans from the increasingly difficult
daily economic grind and get them to rally around the flag by putting a thumb in
Uncle Sam's eye. Yet there is something else.
Venezuela has reason to fear increasing irrelevance as
North America becomes more energy independent. This makes Iran crucial. Mr.
Maduro may be trying to establish himself as a leader as committed to the
anti-American cause as was his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, who had a strong
personal bond with former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He also needs
to establish his own place in South American politics.
Reaching out to Mr. Snowden is a way to send a message
to the world that notwithstanding Secretary of State John Kerry's feeble attempt at rapprochement with Caracas
last month, post-Chávez Venezuela has no intention of changing the course of the
Bolivarian revolution. Rather, as the economy of the once-wealthy oil nation
deteriorates, Mr. Maduro is signaling that Venezuela wants to become an even
more loyal geopolitical ally and strategic partner of Russia and Iran.
Mr. Maduro's presidency is still viewed as illegitimate
by roughly half of the Venezuelan electorate, who voted for challenger Henrique Capriles in April. The
official rate of the currency known as the "strong bolívar" is 6.3 to the
dollar. But a shortage of greenbacks has forced importers into the black market
where the currency trades at somewhere between 31 and 37. There are price
controls on just about everything, producing shortages of food and medicine.
Even so, inflation is now hovering at around 35%, which means that some vendors
are skirting government mandates.
In a free society with competitive elections, economic
chaos generally prompts a government response designed to mitigate hardship.
Venezuela needs liberalization. But that would threaten the profits of the
military, which is largely running the country. When the nation ran out of
toilet paper in the spring, it was the perfect metaphor for the failed state.
But Mr. Maduro's foreign minister, Elias Jaua, responded by scolding Venezuelans
for materialism, asking, "Do you want a fatherland or toilet paper?"
If the government is saying that it doesn't give a damn
about the economic death spiral, this is because it believes it has the nation
in a head lock. State control of information—by a president who has now become
the world's foremost defender of Mr. Snowden—is almost complete. The last large
independent cable television station was finally sold in April and the
independent print media market is shrinking.
Another tool of repression, which Mr. Snowden supposedly
abhors, is the ability to spy on citizens. Chávez had no compunction about
recording the conversations of adversaries, and the practice continues under Mr.
Maduro. Competing factions inside the government may even be getting into the
act. Two recent high-profile cases—one involving a well-known government insider
alleging crimes by members of the government in a conversation with the Cuban
military, and another targeting an opposition politician—have increased the
feeling among citizens that there is no such thing as a private conversation.
Yet even a government that locks down the press and
spies on its own citizens without answering for it needs allies. No nation can
survive in full isolation, especially when its economic power collapses.
Latin despots get this. Argentina is depositing goodwill
in its account with Iran by blocking Alberto Nisman's trip to Washington.
Venezuela, by offering refuge to Edward Snowden, is undoubtedly making a similar
offering to the enemies of its enemies.
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