Venezuela's Maduro Globe Trots: Building Regional Ties or a Domestic Distraction?
Venezuela's Maduro Globe Trots: Building Regional Ties or a Domestic Distraction?
AS/COA's Christopher Sabatini points out that President Nicolás Maduro's diplomatic tour in South America is a mere distraction from the voting disputes in Venezuela over his legitimacy.
After a stop in Uruguay, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro was received in Buenos Aires today by Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the Argentine presidential palace, La Casa Rosada.
Speaking on the tarmac of the city airport, Mr. Maduro recalled that former President Hugo Chávez "deeply loved" Argentina, and told local press he came to "ratify that love."
In his first official tour abroad, Venezuela's new leader is visiting Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil in hopes of strengthening relations and deepening cooperation within the South American trade block, Mercosur. However, while a domestic dispute over the legality of Maduro's presidential victory continues to drag on at home, analysts say Maduro's tour is more about saving face domestically than improving relations abroad.
"When there's problems domestically, there's nothing quite like an international tour to make a president look presidential," says Christopher Sabatini, senior director of policy at the Americas Society and Council of the Americas in New York.
Mr. Sabatini adds that turning to foreign diplomacy is not a new tactic. He points to the example of former US president Bill Clinton, who when embroiled with the Monica Lewinsky scandal embarked on a series of overseas missions. Presidents tend to travel when they are under fire at home, Sabatini says….
