President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, according to Purdue political scientist Michael Weinstein, is poised to announce in June that Venezuela is now the most oil-rich country in the world, surpassing Saudi Arabia. Is this a religion story? Yes. Islam and oil are so thoroughly linked in fact and in imagination that for the last several years we’ve been reading mostly erroneous reports of Al Qaeda training bases in Venezuela, as if oil plus a state leader critical of the U.S. automatically equal militant Islam. In fact, Chavez bases his opposition to U.S. influence in the region in part on his Christian faith — he seems as certain as George W. that Jesus is behind him. But his Christ is socialist and South American, and looks for friends not to emerging Christian conservative powers of the “New Europe” such as Poland and the Ukraine, but to leftist bloc comprised of Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Brazil (where Lula, intriguingly, draws on a certain amount of evangelical support for his center-left government).

Weinstein notes that the bloc may move north in a big way if Mexico swings left in the coming election. As it stands, the leftist candidate, former Mexico City mayor Andre Manuel Lopez Obrador is probably the front runner, despite slippage in the polls. But, in another interesting turn, the conservative Felipe Calderon is looking for help to former Bush / Clinton advisor But not if Dick Morris has anything to say about. The former Bush / Clinton advisor, who helped Vicente Fox win the Mexican presidency in 2000 (in violation of the Mexican Constitution), is now working for conservative Felipe Calderon.

Still a religion story? Yes, twice over. First, the potential shift of oil power from Saudi Arabia to Venezuela will alter the terms of the “clash of civilizations” thesis beloved by neocons and evangelical globalists. Secondly, if Mexico joins the Caracas-centered bloc, it will increase the gravitational force of a leftist, Latino Christianity that has been dormant as an international force since liberation theology was violently suppresed in the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s. Mexico’s Lopez Obrador has been mistaken for an evangelical for his frequent references to Christ, but he insists he’s Catholic and seeks the support of Mexico’s bishops; at the same time, he refuses to submit crucial health policy decisions to their control.

That is, if he’s allowed to take power. Dissidents and ordinary citizens in the Mexican town of San Salvador Atenco have learned that the Fox regime is willing to use extreme violence to silence them. And in the case
of a visiting anthropologist, the church was no protection.

–Jeff Sharlet