U.S. getting tough with Venezuelan President Chavez

Houston Chronicle ^ | January 26, 2002 | CHRISTINA HOAG

[Cincinatus' Wife]

CARACAS, Venezuela -- He was regarded as something akin to a problem child, a Latin American leader seeking a ready spotlight on the world stage by taking jabs at the monolithic power of the United States.

But as irksome as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez appeared, Washington chose the path of restrained tolerance when it came to the comandante, who sends 1.5 million barrels of oil a day to U.S. shores.

Not any more.

As much as the United States covets Venezuela's oil and Venezuela needs the United States as its biggest export market, the countries' previously robust diplomatic relationship has soured steadily because of Chavez's shrill rhetoric.

Miguel Diaz, an expert on Latin American affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a U.S. think tank, said that for a long time, Washington probably gave Chavez more than his fair share of the benefit of the doubt. "But now," he said, "we've made a decision on Chavez."

That decision is to take a hard line against the populist leader, who in August hosted a birthday party for Cuban leader Fidel Castro before taking a Middle Eastern trip in which he bear-hugged Libya's Moammar Khadafi and pronounced Iran a "strategic ally."

In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell and CIA Director George Tenet expressed deep concerns. Powell told a Senate committee: "We have doubts that he understands what a democratic system is all about."

Tenet told another Senate panel: "The atmosphere of crisis will worsen" in Venezuela, which possesses the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East.

Analysts say such tough talk underscores how low Venezuela's relations with the United States have spiraled.

In recent months, Chavez has taken a series of actions perceived as anti-American. He has refused to let the Drug Enforcement Administration carry out surveillance flights over Venezuelan territory. He has ended long-established joint military exercises, and he has evicted the U.S. military attaché from its 50-year-old office at the Fort Tiuna Army Base in Caracas.

Sources say Chavez also has directed military officers to purchase Russian and Chinese equipment instead of American.

Former allies of Chavez say he has long harbored a deep suspicion of U.S. intentions in the hemisphere, and especially Venezuela. His mentor, Castro, has nurtured that paranoia, they say, but at the same time urged Chavez not to follow his lead and make Washington an enemy.

Fidel Castro and president Hugo Chavez tour Canaima National Park
in eastern Venezuela last year. (AP photo)-(Admiring their good luck necklaces on Castro's birthday)

Chavez has apparently ignored the Cuban's advice. The turning point with Washington came in October when Chavez held up a picture of a dead Afghan child during a televised speech and declared, "This cannot be an error," adding, "You cannot fight terror with terror."

That, says a U.S. official, was the straw that broke the camel's back. Although Chavez rapidly backpedaled, the damage had been done.

Attempts at mollification by Chavez were too little, too late, say some analysts. They note that

Washington's new get-tough policy comes as opposition is mounting against Chavez at home. His popularity has plunged from 80 percent in the polls three years ago to about 30 percent currently, a drop that has not been lost on U.S. officials.

"Washington didn't want to take on (Chavez) with 80 percent popularity," said Kurt Weyland, a political scientist at the University of Texas at Austin.

Chavez, who sources say is eager for a meeting with President Bush but has been put off by the White House, plays down his latest contretemps with his northern neighbor, acknowledging only "differences in focuses on specific topics."

He blames Capitol Hill's new harshness on his detractors' "lighting candles to Satan to break our relations so that a sanction or an embargo is imposed," he said during his Sunday radio show.

Analysts say Chavez should take the words from Washington more seriously. The new U.S. discourse, says Weyland, will only embolden the growing domestic political opposition, which will itself result in intensified rhetoric against Chavez from Washington.

"This will reinforce the dynamic," he said. "One thing feeds the other."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

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