Portugal and Venezuela attempt to get closer...again

Caracas, Venezuela, 13 May 2008. Today, Portuguese Socialist Prime Minister José Socrates started a three-day visit to Venezuela. After meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, PM Sócrates signed 14 bilateral agreements on energy, food security, tourism, judicial assistance against drug trafficking and diplomatic cooperation. At the time of signature, PM Socrates promised to honor the recently signed agreements as the first step to the betterment of bilateral relations. Earlier, the Prime Minister Socrates had inaugurated a Portuguese Exhibition in Caracas.  

After few Chavez visits to Portugal, the signing of these new agreements are expected to boost bilateral relations. However, they have been tainted by both timing and political considerations in the past. On the other hand, immigration concerns and common nationality issues have mostly fuelled bilateral relations. What are the new circumstances surrounding the attempted revival of bilateral relation now?

Amid rising oil prices and the need to revive the Portugal economy, energy seems to be the driving force of the Socrates visit to Caracas. On the political front, it is difficult to imagine how Socrates and Chavez look into their eyes when in comes to exchanging views on socialism or social rights:  Portuguese "Socialist" Prime Minister Socrates has followed a "cut spending reform" that reduced pensions, rose the retirement age and scrapped civil servant benefits.  On the contrary, Venezuelan Socialist President Hugo Chavez has made all possible efforts to use oil revenues to fund social rights as universal education and health.   Overriding such political differences is the need of Portugal to access better oil prices. While tonight, Portugal increases its petrol price in more than three cents per gallon, Venezuela promises to provide four million barrels of oil in 2009 alone.

The bilateral commercial relation is also pending for improvement. No wonder, Prime Minister Socrates showed up with an important 80-member business delegation and his Minister for Economy and Innovation Manuel Pinho. Other important members of the visiting delegation include the Minister for Strategic Business, Luis Amado, the Minister for Public Works, Transport and Communications, Mario Lino, and the State Secretary for Portuguese Communities, Antonio Braga.   Furthermore and during the signing ceremony at Miraflores, President Chavez asked the visiting business delegation to help increase bilateral commerce. Then, he recalled that the US has a political acrimonious relation with his administration. On many occasions, Washington has asked other countries to isolate it; however, it keeps increasing the sales of commercial goods to Venezuela while maintaining its competitors aside. A newly signed agreement on food security promises to grasp the opportunity for better commercial exchanges. Only the future would tell whether it was accomplished or not.

Political bilateral relations have also been affected by changes in the ideological orientation of the Lisbon government. Socialist have been easier to talked to that centre right or rightist Social Democrat. However and until now, there was no significant visit on the part of Portugal to Venezuela. The participation of Portugal in the invading force against Iraq in 2003 during the premiership of Social Democrat José Manuel Barroso and its later ambitions on the reconstruction scheme proved a chilling moment of the bilateral relations. 

 At a local level, relations with Madeira have also been difficult. Despite the fact that most Portuguese citizens - living in Venezuela - come from Madeira, political relations with its Regional President Antonio Joao Jardim have not been good at all. After welcoming Chavez in the island during his visits to Portugal, the President of the Regional Autonomous Government of Madeira, Antonio Jardim showed his real opinion on the Venezuelan President during the attempted coup in 2002. The Centre-Right Social Democrat leader Antonio Jardim backed the coup against Chavez unaware of his prompt return to power few days later.  As Jardim continues to enjoy an interrupted exercise of local power in Madeira, there has been not a single hint of Chavez returning to the island after 2002. 

On the human side, Madeira immigrants that happily settled in Venezuela have been traditionally marked bilateral relations. After France, US and Brazil, Venezuela has the most important Portuguese expatriate community or Diaspora. It is estimated to be made up of more than half a million people now. However, many Portuguese immigrants married Venezuelans or settled permanently in the country. Thus, the contribution of their siblings to economic, cultural and political life in the country overrides such figure.

This Portuguese visit takes place amid the exchanges between President Hugo Chavez and German Chancellor Angela Merkel just days prior to an EU Latin America Summit in Peru. Former Portuguese Prime Minister and 11th President of the European Commission, Juan Manuel Barroso, backed the German government critics on Chavez regional leadership. Barroso premiership -from 6 April 2002 until 17 July 2004 -coincided with the 2002 coup against Chavez. It was during his tenure that Bush, Blair and Aznar met in 2003 at the Portuguese Azores Island of Terceira to organize and coordinate a coalition to invade and occupy Iraq.   Both Angela Merkel  and  Juan Manuel Barroso are members of the European Peoples Party, the largest transnational European Political Party which includes Conservative and Christian Democrat parties.  

Sources: VTV, Globovision, Ultima Hora, YVKE, Jornal de Noticias, Expresso, Lusa ,Unionradio, Telesur, El Universal,

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