Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, Venezuela’s ambassador to the United States, speaks last night at Brown University, defending the policies of the country’s controversial leader, Hugo Chavez.

The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE

With his anti-United States rants and sharp insults hurled at President Bush, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has drawn strong opposition from Republicans in Washington and made it clear that he will not bend his socialist doctrines to the whims of American foreign and military policies.

Last night, Chavez’s ambassador to the United States, Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, mounted a stout defense of the Venezuelan government before a mostly supportive audience at Brown University. The U.S. government, particularly the neoconservatives who have informed much of U.S. policy since Mr. Bush’s 2000 election, have to recognize that Latin America has emerged from the days of gunboat diplomacy and U.S. domination and has no intention of turning back, Herrera said.

“I have to be very honest, we are not a threat to the U.S. as a nation,” said Herrera. But Venezuela and other newly empowered nations of Latin America are going to continue to “confront” and challenge “U.S. hegemony” in the region.

Chavez, first elected in 1998, has pushed for democratic socialism in Venezuela, spent billions in government money to help the poor and establish new medical, educational and social welfare programs. Chavez has also used money from Venezuela’s oil wealth — the country is the world’s fourth-largest petroleum producer — to lavish aid on Cuba, Bolivia and Argentina.

As he has consolidated power in Venezuela, Chavez has emerged as an increasingly belligerent thorn in the Bush administration’s side. Chavez has called Mr. Bush a “terrorist” compared him to a “political cadaver” and suggested that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is a sexually frustrated “illiterate”

Ambassador Herrera, on a three-day swing through the New England states of Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, three states where Mr. Bush’s job-approval may be as low as in Latin America, struck a more compromising tone than Chavez. While Herrera jettisoned the inflammatory language for which Chavez is known, the ambassador was steadfast in his criticism of U.S. foreign policy in the Southern Hemisphere.

For too long, Herrera said, the United States sided with the “economic elite” in countries such as Venezuela and gave little more than lip service to the widespread scourge of poverty, pollution and exploitation of natural resources by foreign companies.

Now, Venezuela is closer to a true participatory democracy than most other countries around the globe. Under Chavez, the ambassador said, life has gotten better for those who were left behind for years by regimes that cared too much for the interests of the local rich and foreign corporate owners.

Venezuela has nationalized much of its oil industry — the government owns the Citgo petroleum company — and has sold oil to some U.S. states — including those in New England — at discount prices to help the poor.

U.S. trade policies that worked to the advantage of U.S. interests will no longer be tolerated by most Latin American governments, Herrera said. “There is a clash of morals” between the United States and such leaders as Chavez over the “way we look at the economy, the way we look at the state.”

At the same time, Herrera said, “we [Venezuelans] have to understand that we cannot blame the U.S. for everything.”

Herrera’s visit was sponsored by Brown’s Center for Latin American Studies, Providence City Councilman Miguel Luna, who represents the Elmwood and Washington Park neighborhoods, the Olneyville Neighborhood Association and several community groups.

During a question-and-answer session, Herrera was asked several thorny questions, including whether Fidel Castro’s revolution in Cuba, and resulting dictatorship, is a model for Venezuela.

Venezuela is an “exceptional case,” Herrera said. He acknowledged that some ideas from the Cuban government speak to Venezuelans, but said that more relevant is probably Chile’s history.

Dr. Salvador Allende, a socialist, came to power in the 1970s in a democratic election, but President Richard Nixon’s Central Intelligence Agency helped undermine Allende’s government, which was overthrown by a military dictatorship that ushered in a regime of violence against political opponents.

A new generation of Latin American leaders understands the U.S. role in Latin America and is not willing to accede to the “Washington consensus” of U.S. domination of trade and governments in the region, Herrera said.

“The whole idea of solidarity comes from Christianity,” said Herrera.

Herrera was asked if Chavez is assuming too much power and why crime is so high in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. The Bush administration may not like the results, but Venezuela has a vibrant democracy that empowers long-forgotten average citizens. Chavez, Herrera said, was elected overwhelmingly, survived a recall election, and has established a constitutional government.

There is not a sufficiently strong opposition political party, Herrera said, because opposition groups effectively boycotted the last presidential election.

On the crime question, Herrera said Caracas, like many cities around the world, suffers from drug-related crime. Much of the country’s drug problems, Herrera said, stem from the long border Venezuela shares with Colombia, a nation long wracked by violence and drug cartels.

“This is something that we have to work at,” said Herrera.

smackay@projo.com