Venezuela possesses the largest reserves of oil outside the Middle East and supplies more than one-tenth of US oil imports but still the economy has woefully underperformed against others in Latin America in the last two years. Inflation has leapt to 30% and seems likely to rise further. The Venezuelan currency has been devalued and is still sinking amongst Caracas's black market money changers. In the capital's sprawling hillside neighbourhoods, jobs are scarce and President Hugo Chavez's Socialist party is looking electorally vulnerable just three months before National Assembly elections. Chavez intends to inject new urgency into his socialist and anti-imperialist revolution, claiming "capitalism is destroying the world".
In a BBC Hardtalk programme in the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Chavez blamed Venezuela's deepening recession on the irresponsible economic policies of the United States. He also expressed disappointment with Barack Obama's "very negative signals" towards Latin America. "In Colombia [the Americans] are building seven military bases; that is one of the very negative signals that Obama sent just after taking office," Chavez said. "Bush decided to reactivate the US Fourth Fleet to operate in Latin America. Obama, instead of suspending or getting rid of the Fourth Fleet has seven military bases planned in Colombia. What for? Is it to go to war, to dominate the Latin American continent?"
Watch the Hardtalk interview on BBC iPlayer here.
