Russia’s dispatch of long-range bombers to Venezuela for joint military exercises may not signal the start of a new Cold War, but it does provide more evidence that Hugo Chávez has become the chief source of hemispheric instability. To be sure, the Venezuelan president is increasingly unpopular in Latin America (and increasingly unpopular at home), and his influence over regional politics is declining. But high oil prices have given him the power to cause trouble and threaten U.S. interests.
Venezuela’s announcement that it will stage war games with Russian forces was at least partly a response to American security policy. Earlier this year, the U.S. Navy reestablished its Fourth Fleet, which had been disestablished way back in 1950. The Fourth Fleet will oversee U.S. naval activities in Latin American and Caribbean waters. By planning sophisticated military maneuvers with Russian warships, Chávez is making a bold show of anti-Yankee defiance. (The Kremlin, of course, has its own reasons for wanting to irritate Washington.)
