Bringing McCarthyism to a University Near You

Last week, during his office hours at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., professor Miguel Tinker Salas, a Venezuela-born historian and Bush administration critic, received an odd visit.

It had nothing to do with term papers or syllabi. In fact, the visitors didn't own a student ID card.

Channeling McCarthy-era intimidation, professor Salas greeted two members of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department/FBI Joint Task Force on Terrorism. They had a file on the U.S. academic, complete with a photo. And they had questions: Was he a U.S. citizen? What was his immigration status? Was he in contact with the Venezuelan embassy?

The event spun from blogosphere to mainstream press, prompting apologies from the FBI's Los Angeles office and birthing charges that the Bush administration is resuscitating Red Scare tactics in an effort to stem U.S. grassroots support for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's socialist ideology.

Is the White House that worried about Chávez's power? Recent weeks have brought marked amplification of Washington's Cold War of words. But top U.S. officials have zeroed in on Chávez's international misdeeds. Intelligence Chief John Negroponte, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld continue to charge Chávez with strong-arming opposition at home, funding rogue elements in his region and coddling Washington's top enemies abroad, including Iran and North Korea.

Last month in congressional testimony, Rice said a "policy of inoculation" was necessary to diplomatically contain Mr. Chávez's influence in Latin America.

For his part, Chávez has mastered the art of annoying Washington: backing Tehran's nuclear plans, wooing North Korea, extending his hand to Hamas, pushing his own civilian nuclear power plans, all while repeating threats to clamp off oil supplies to the United States.

Meanwhile, the controller of the world's fifth-largest oil exporting country is deftly seeding his image and ideology in Washington's backyard, connecting with U.S. citizens and groups that share his disdain for the Bush administration, for neoliberalism and, more generally, for globalization's myriad failures.

His message is powered by oil. Flush with petrodollars, Chávez has offered free or discounted gas to America's poorest citizens through CITGO, a subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company. He has floated the idea of offering free eye surgery to poor Americans while his government has helped out on local levels. In Chicago, for instance, a popular street festival Fiesta Boricua, was saved last year by a $100,000 donation from CITGO.

And he's won followers, from Jessie Jackson to Cindy Sheehan to everyday Americans from Tennessee to Utah. The Miami Herald reported in December that fifteen "Bolivarian Circles" -- the grassroots groups that form the basis of Chávez's social revolution in Venezuela -- have sprung up in U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Boston, Miami, Salt Lake City and Knoxville. Meanwhile, his government is paying a Washington lobbyist for an image buffing on Capitol Hill.

Supporters say Chávez's "grassroots foreign policy" is a taste of Washington's own medicine, a flip side to the congressionally funded National Endowment for Democracy's support of anti-Chávez groups in Venezuela. Washington casts Chávez as the puppeteer of Latin America's so-called "Pink Tide," the recent rise of progressive, anti-U.S. politicians eager to distance themselves from U.S.-backed free market policies. With oil at stake and Bush at 39 percent approval ratings, does the Salas incident mark the beginnings of a Pink Scare?

In this edited transcript, professor Salas talks with Alternet.

Kelly Hearn: What do you think caused the visit? Are you currently active in groups that support Mr. Chávez?