Chavez Skips El Salvador

Following President Obama's state visit to El Salvador in March, there was a little controversy about whether President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela would go to El Salvador in April or March to celebrate the opening of a new oil refinery. Would the President Funes invite Chavez or would it just be an FMLN-only invitation?

At the time, I said that I didn't think that it was a good idea for El Salvador to be extending an invitation to Chavez within hours of Obama's visit. 

On the one hand, Funes and the FMLN have the right to invite anyone they want to El Salvador and Funes has the right to visit other heads of state as he sees fit. Funes just returned from a trip to visit President Santos in Colombia and more recently hosted President Obama. That sounds like a non-aligned foreign policy to me.

On the other hand, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. I thought that the importance of Obama's trip to El Salvador was more symbolic than anything else. However, I had also hoped that the symbolism of the state visit would lead to a more productive relationship between the two countries (specifically the FMLN) built on mutual respect. We would then be able to make progress on comprehensive immigration reform, tinkering with CAFTA, regional security, etc. All of which require sacrifice from Obama and the US and Funes and El Salvador.

Well, yesterday Chavez did not make the trip to El Salvador. According to the mayor of Apopa and one of the managers of Alba-Petróleos company in El Salvady, Luz Estrella Rodríguez, doctors did not Chavez permission to travel abroad just yet due to health concerns.

Chávez was scheduled to attend the inauguration of Alba-Petróleos's $120 million storage plant in Acajutla, Sonsonate. The plant has a capacity of 350,000 barrels of oil. Alba-Petroleos El Salvador is a joint venture owned by municipalities controlled by the FMLN and Venezuelan state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa). 

This is the second time that Chavez did not make an expected trip to El Salvador. He also did not attend Funes' inauguration in 2009. Chavez was not the only one absent at the inauguration. El Salvador's own president, Mauricio Funes, did not attend either.

Funes has tried to maintain a cordial distance from Chavez, the Venezuela government, and the international Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA), which consists of Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Bolivia. However, FMLN General Secretary Medardo Gonzalez took the opportunity to call the inauguration of the refinery as the the "realization of ALBA" in El Salvador. 

Gonzalez also took the opportunity to criticize ARENA and the country's oligarchy. Their relationship with petroleum-based multinational corporations never had the social development of the country in mind. Instead, he seems to hope for a relationship with Alba-Petróleos and Venezuela more along the lines of the relationship that Nicaragua. For example. Nicaragua currently sells livestock, meat, coffee, and other products in return for fuel. 

While FMLN leaders clearly want to strengthen the country's political and economic ties with Venezuela, it's pretty clear so far that that will not happen while Funes is president. However, his term ends in 2014 and, as of right now, the FMLN has a good shot at retaining the presidency because of the discord within the right. The 2014 elections are a long ways away, but we should have a better picture following the 2012 legislative and municipal elections.