Chavez friends in Russia

Mary Anastasia O'Grady:

As two Russian Tu-160 bombers landed in Venezuela last week on a training mission, President Hugo Chávez took to his nation's airwaves to celebrate. It was the first time since the Cold War that military jets sent from Moscow touched down in the Western Hemisphere. "Yankee hegemony is finished," Mr. Chávez declared.

What the Venezuelan did not mention was the fact that, according to a State Department official, "the U.S. Air Force picked up the Russian aircraft just west of Norway and escorted them all the way to Venezuela."

That American top guns could toy with Russians sent to show solidarity with Venezuela is not surprising. Vladimir Putin has been trying to rebuild his military, but it is no match for U.S. might. Nor is it believable that Russia seriously expects to challenge the U.S. in the Caribbean with the flotilla it says that it is sending next month for joint exercises with Venezuela.

Yet 17 years after we thought the Cold War had ended, Russia is evoking memories of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis by playing war games with another would-be Latin strongman. It's Mr. Putin's way of making a face at President Bush for his proposed missile defense in Europe, and his resistance to Russia's latest efforts to restore its former empire by force.

Mr. Chávez is only too happy to be used. He thinks he's getting something in return. His Bolivarian Revolution -- a full-court press designed to impose communism throughout Latin America -- is in trouble, and as its popularity has waned, so too have his options for restoring confidence in his leadership. Yet there is still the fail-safe practice of Yankee-baiting. In the spirit of Fidel Castro, Mr. Chávez seems to believe that if the foreign devil can be painted as an imminent threat to sovereignty, the nation might rally behind him. This idea, shared by Bolivian President Evo Morales, explains not only Russian military tourism in the Caribbean but also last week's expulsion of the U.S. ambassadors to Caracas and La Paz.

Mr. Chávez has troubles at home, and elsewhere in the region resistance to his Bolivarian Revolution is also rising. Last week it boiled over in Bolivia, where Mr. Morales, backed by Mr. Chávez, seeks to consolidate power through a Venezuelan-style rewrite of the constitution.

Governors and local populations in four of Bolivia's nine departments have said they will not accept ratification of the new constitution by popular referendum. They also have expressed a desire for increased autonomy from La Paz. But on Aug. 28, Mr. Morales signed a decree that put the referendum in motion anyway.

That ignited a firestorm, and in recent weeks road blocks and strikes designed to paralyze the country have provoked violence in the streets. Last week, eight people were killed in civilian clashes in the province of Pando.

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Morales does not handle resistance well. He blames the US for actions taken independently by Bolivians who don't want to be under a communist control freak government. His problem is different from Chavez who is also unpopular with many in Venezuela. Chavez's opposition is more diffused through the population so it is harder for them to coordinate their activities and put up an effective resistance. In Bolivia the resistance is regional and those in the region can easily rally to oppose Morales's attempts to impose control freak government.

As for Russia, it is a case of both sides using each other to demonstrate their anger at the US. Chavez has searched the world for those who don't like us and has found a pretty motley crew.