Speaking of Hugo Chavez

Hugo Chavez's offer to mediate in the Libyan crisis marks the Venezuelan president's latest attention-grabbing foray onto the world stage.

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Miguel Tinker Salas, author of The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture and Society in Venezuela, agreed that Chavez's motivation was primarily to promote Venezuela as a country with diplomatic clout.

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”It's [...] also the first effort from any source to bring these sides to a conversation, if that's even possible," he said.

But, Salas warned, the only scenario in which Chavez could emerge in a positive light would be in "facilitating the process in which Gaddafi leaves the country".

"If he could provide an honourable way out for Gaddafi, in some ways that would reduce the tensions and provide for some transition. He could actually come out as a well-regarded mediator with international credibility - or he could end up on the wrong side of history."

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Chavez also risked finding himself isolated from the revolts sweeping the Arab world, with possible implications for his leftist credentials at home and abroad.

alJazeera

Unless, of course, his intent is to convince Qaddafi to change or leave. Who ever knows with Hugo?

Despite "similarities of style" and a "kinship of personality", Charles Jones said Chavez would "bridle at Gaddafi's total disregard for constitutionality... Chavez places huge emphasis on elections and public support."

Jonathan Di John, a Venezuelan expert at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, said Chavez's intentions were "far more socially democratic than Gadaffi's" and questioned whether his involvement in Libya would do him any serious harm domestically.

I doubt it. Despite a large contingent of pro-US, anti-Chavez elites in Venezuela, the majority of the people are poor and they absolutely love their president, as megalomaniacal as he might be. And he seems to truly love them.

Ultimately, said Di John, Chavez's mediation offer was a low-risk gambit by a politician who has used anti-western rhetoric to bolster Venezuela's profile – and who may not have ever expected his offer to be taken seriously.

“I don't think as far as the US and some other countries are concerned they hold him in very high esteem anyway, so he doesn't really have a lot to lose in that respect.

Nor does he care. He has no desire to be respected by neo-liberalist empires. Quite the opposite.