Support for Venezuela

Policy

On rare occasions throughout the Chavez era, U.S. leaders would praise and support the Venezuelan government. These demonstrations of support were disparate and did not share a common theme other than that they almost always came when the Chavez government implemented policies in line with the U.S. national interest. Some examples of this included oil policies that benefited the U.S., concessions by Chavez to have bilateral or multilateral diplomatic negotiations, U.S.-Venezuela cooperation on natural disasters, and broader praise for historic events in Venezuela such as the abolition of slavery. Before American policymakers knew about Chavez, they praised him and the country of Venezuela for the free and fair “democratic elections” that brought him into power. These favorable policies and declarations of support certainly did not fall in line with the prominent dominant-negative discourse toward Chavez and Venezuela. Yet, it still reflected how the U.S. government utilized positive discursive techniques toward Venezuela to promote its hegemony and asymmetric regional power.