Chavez seeks influence with oil diplomacy

MEXICO CITY
A generous offer, but not a surprising one.

Chavez has been traveling the hemisphere offering preferential oil deals, barters, and loans to leftist and left-of-center governments. In the past 30 days, the leader of the world’s fifth-largest oil exporting country, has inked deals with Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Thirteen Caribbean nations signed a deal for cheap oil in June. And since April, Cuba has been getting almost all of its oil from Venezuela in exchange for doctors and gym teachers.

It is, Chavez says, his way of helping neighboring countries cut energy costs and improve living standards in the region. “Altruism,” says Eric Wingerter, a spokesman at the Venezuela Information Office in Washington, D.C., simply. “This is part of larger process involving regional solidarity and helping other countries economically.”

But critics charge Chavez is buying friends and influence with the objective of extending his regional hegemony