Chavez sends school chum to bolster Korea ties

Chavez and Ortiz are both from Barinas, a city of about 250,000, and attended high school together


Venezuela sent a high-school friend of President Hugo Chavez to Korea as the South American country’s new chief diplomatic representative in a bid to bolster bilateral ties.

Charge d’Affaires Yadira Hidalgo de Ortiz, former vice minister of communes and social protection who attended high school with Chavez, arrived in Korea on Sept. 12 to head up her nation’s diplomatic mission here.

Chavez and Ortiz are both from Barinas, a city of about 250,000, and attended Daniel Florencio O’leary High School together.

“We were close friends,” Ortiz said in an interview with the Korea Herald at her office in downtown Seoul.

The world knows Chavez foremost as a socialist firebrand and anti-U.S. critic who once referred to former U.S. President George Bush as the devil, and joked that the podium Bush spoke at had the lingering smell of brimstone and sulfur.

In high school, however, he was a supportive friend and a model student who loved poetry and helping the younger students with their math homework, Ortiz said. 

Venezuelan Charge d’Affaires to Korea Yadira Hidalgo de Ortiz (Philip Iglauer/The Korea Herald)

“In high school, we nicknamed him ‘Tribilin,’ because he was skinny and had big feet,” she said. Tribilin is the South American name for Walt Disney’s cartoon dog Goofy.

“He was an excellent student and a very supportive friend,” she said.

“We were close friends and talked often,” she said, adding he loved to read poetry, sing and paint. “We talked about literature and music all the time.”

“He often helped the younger students and tutored them in mathematics,” Ortiz said of Chavez who, last week, secured his fourth term, trouncing his opponent Henrique Capriles by 11 percentage points in an election much of the international press predicted would spell the end for Chavez. He has been president since 1999.

“If you see him on TV, you can tell how talented he is in mathematics,” she said. “When he is giving a speech, he will make an impromptu mathematical analysis, for example, of a budget item or a trade agreement,” she said.

They went their separate ways after graduating from high school ― Chavez to military academy and Ortiz to university. She studied psychology.

The Venezuelan diplomatic mission here has not had an ambassador-level envoy since July 10, 2006, when Ambassador Guillermo Quintero, Venezuela’s 5th mission chief completed his posting.

Bilateral ties appear to have skidded since then.

Venezuela was strengthening ties with North Korea after Chavez was elected in 1999 and, according to trade figures, commerce between the two nations increased when President Chavez took office but has dwindled from 2007.

In September 2005, Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister William Izarra received Yang Hyong-sop, a high-level North Korean government official, in Caracas for discussions on trade and cooperation.

There was also speculation bandied about in the media that Chavez might even make an “oil for arms” deal with North Korea and, during a state visit to Russia in 2006, visit Pyongyang.

Chavez wanted to make a state visit to South Korea the same year, but the Korean side rebuffed his overtures, according to Yonhap News.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said, however, Yonhap did not get the story completely right.

“I read that report but it was not fully correct,” said Jo Yung-joon, director of Central American and Caribbean Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. “We did not reject an offer (by Venezuela for Chavez) to visit Korea.

“I checked the old records on this from the original offer from the Venezuelan side in 2006. It was only a matter of timing. There was a tit for tat over the scheduling between our side and the Venezuelan side,” Jo said, adding that it is the department in charge of protocol that handles receiving foreign state visits.

That statement contradicts the reason for declining Venezuela’s proposal for Chavez to visit described in U.S. Embassy documents uncovered by online whistle-blower Wikileaks.

Park Dong-won, director at the ministry’s South America division, told the U.S. Embassy that Korea declined a Chavez visit “sensitive to United States government concerns” and in “consideration of the U.S.-Korean alliance,” according to the leaked U.S. Embassy document.

The embassy cable added: “Park also noted Chavez’s personal attack on President Bush and Venezuela’s intervention in Latin American countries. Asked what reason (the Korean government) gave to Venezuela for declining, Park said the ROKG explained that its diplomatic agenda this year was full.”

The leaked cable was signed off by former U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow.

For her part, Venezuela’s new envoy was optimistic about bilateral ties, saying that with the recent agreements and high-level visits, ties are strengthening.

“Our goal is to continue to strengthen those relations. For example, we have hammered out investment agreements between Korea and Venezuela,” she said, and rattled off a list of cooperation deals between Korea and Venezuela in support of her point.

The two nations hammered out a framework agreement for the participation of KOGAS in Venezuela’s Sucre offshore gas project, which had been hard pressed to attract foreign investment, as well as a slew of MOUs.

The country negotiated memorandums of understanding with STX and Daewoo to develop oil terminals; SK Construction & Engineering struck a deal to build facilities in the Orinoco Petroleum Belt; and two separate deals were made for Hyundai Construction & Engineering to build a refinery in Baralla de Santa Ines and an electricity plant in Venzuela’s oil-rich Faja region.

Venezuela is the 5th-largest member in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Improved relations reached its height perhaps when Minister of Energy and Petroleum Rafael Ramirez visited Seoul in April 26. He is also the president of Venezuela’s state-owned petroleum company, PDVSA.

Asked if Chavez would visit Korea again, Ortiz said: “The president has no problem visiting any country that will welcome him.”

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2011@heraldcorps.com)