Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Monday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s socialist policies are losing their influence in Latin America, in an interview with Nuevo Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer in Miami.
Uribe said in the interview that it appears that even some of the states closest to Chavez are distancing themselves from his model of government, in the realization that fighting all forms of privatization is unsustainable.
“I have seen that the influence of Chavism in the continent has faded, in some ways,” said Uribe. “They [other countries] have very cordial relations, and there are some that declare themselves very close friends of his, but they are not following his formula exactly.”
These “friends” include the governments of Ecuador and Nicaragua, the latter of which, according to Uribe, keeps its international discourse in line with Chavez’s new socialism model, but maintains an internal dialogue with the private business sector.
He also stated that although Brazil continues to have a close relationship with Venezuela in international discourse, economically, the country is closer with Colombia.
For his part, Uribe expressed preoccupation about the situation in Venezuela, particularly regarding the country’s petroleum reserves, and opined that social programs to subsidize public sectors are not sustainable in the absence of private investment.