Latin America Needs Free Trade, Not 'Verbal Diarrhea' of Chavez

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is 'a demagogue' who cannot tolerate the fact that free trade works and that political dictatorship and an 'omnipresent State' do not. Lamenting the fact that Ecuador seems to have accepted the Venezuelan President's anti-U.S. 'verbal diarrhea,' this op-ed article from Ecuador's El Universo says that like many others in Latin America, it too is Chavez' 'puppy.'

By Hern·n PÈrez Loose
Translated By Karen Hoffmann

November 11, 2005

Original Article (Spanish)    

In Hugo Chavez' sick delirium to extend his Caesarism beyond Venezuela's borders, the President of Venezuela has branded the Mexican President Fox "a puppy" for his defense of the United States-sponsored plan to create a hemispheric free trade area (Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA). Fox does so in light of the success achieved by Mexico as a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and because of his conviction that it is the correct path for the region.

Saying that Fox is Washington's "puppy" is just the simplification of a demagogue. Mexico's decision to join NAFTA, and the years of negotiation that culminated on 1994, was the work of several governments. They were consensual decisions by the entire Mexican political spectrum, including the left. The idea of abandoning NAFTA has yet to occur to any of the candidates likely to succeed Fox next year.

There are good reasons for this. Since NAFTA came into effect, Mexico has seen inflation fall, reserves increase and unemployment diminish to historical lows. In 1994, Mexico exported about $35 billion. This year, it will reach $200 billion, and foreign investment has grown enormously.

NAFTA has not been paradise, obviously. No agreement of this kind can guarantee that no one loses. That does not exist.

But what matters is the impact across the entire economy. In that sense, NAFTA has indeed created conditions for Mexican development unthinkable two decades ago, when the country was hijacked by a political oligarchy and a nationalistic ideology. The case of Chile has not been much different. [Free trade with the U.S., and by most accounts, an economic success story].

Like all fools, Chavez is annoyed by this reality. Imagine if we had to follow his path: a political dictatorship and an omnipresent State. A path by which Latin America has already journeyed and which leads to abyss and impasse: fiscal deficits, inflation, unemployment and a lack of competitiveness. But Chavez' "puppies" believe the contrary.

Thus, today they demand that the Ecuadorian government not sign the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, not to mention the FTAA. In a dollarized economy and with the United States as our main trading partner, and incidentally with a trade balance favorable to us, the advantages of the FTA and FTAA widely surpass the integration project of which Chavez speaks. But pleasing Chavez and his school is put above the interests of Ecuador's; and now the [Ecuadorian] people have raised their voices against the FTA.

These are the same voices that have made us dependent on Colombia and Peru for electricity, and that have forced us to spend our oil income for importing fuel, not for education. It is the same song that people in uniform sang yesterday while invoking national security, and that the "puppies" of Chavez now intone. And in the midst of this verbal diarrhea, Ecuador follows, crushed and lost.