Posted on 05/25/2002 3:25:11 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS - After weeks of strains in U.S.-Venezuelan relations caused by Washington's weak response to a coup attempt against leftist President Hugo Chávez, the two governments are trying to warm up bilateral contacts.
Chávez, whose country regularly ranks among the United States' top three oil suppliers, has told aides he will soon replace his leftist foreign minister with a career diplomat now serving as ambassador in Washington.
U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro met recently met with Chávez and six Cabinet ministers and declared repeatedly that Washington would oppose any new unconstitutional attempt to topple the president.
MAKING EFFORTS
''We and the government of Venezuela are trying to find ways to improve out bilateral relations,'' Shapiro said in an interview.
The two nations' efforts come in the wake of a spike in the strains in U.S. relations with Chávez, long troubled by his populist policies and friendship with American foes such as Cuba, Iraq and Libya.
Washington initially failed to condemn an April 11-14 coup against Chávez, saying in effect that he was largely to blame for the military rebellion sparked by a bloody shootout at a massive march by Chávez opponents.
Subsequent allegations that U.S. military officers helped the coup plotters -- staunchly denied by Washington -- further roiled relations between Washington and the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas.
EASING THE TENSION
But in the past two weeks, both sides have made key moves to ease the tensions, with Chávez and several of his Cabinet ministers going out of their way to promise that they will ensure a steady supply of oil to the United States.
Chávez has told several friends that he will soon name Roy Chaderton Matos, appointed to the Washington embassy only earlier this year, to replace Foreign Minister Luis Alfonso Dávila, a diplomatic neophyte but staunch Chávez backer.
Chaderton previously served in Poland and Britain, and most recently as ambassador in neighboring Colombia, a critical posting because of allegations that Chávez has been friendly with Marxist Colombian guerrillas.
''His marching orders will be to sweep aside Davila's anti-American rhetoric and get our foreign relations -- all of them, but especially with the Americans -- on a professional footing,'' said one Chávez confidant.
Chávez on Tuesday also dismissed Commerce Minister Adena Bastida, a firebrand Chavista who had regularly portrayed the United States as an ''imperial'' power and advocated closing Venezuelan markets to some U.S. goods.
Another Chávez friend said he counseled the president at a recent meeting also to tone down his warm relations with Havana. Chávez did not respond, the friend said.
But Venezuela is toughening the terms of its generous oil supply deal with Cuba after the island has fallen repeatedly into arrears on payments.
State-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. -- or PDVSA -- stopped dispatching crude and refined products, including jet fuel, to Cuba around April 12 after the island defaulted on a $63.4 million bill.
U.S. officials meanwhile are finding it easier to arrange meetings with Chávez and government officials, to let them know that Washington remains concerned by the explosive divisions between the president's backers and foes.
''The U.S. believes it is important that there be national reconciliation in Venezuela and encourages both sides to take steps in that regard,'' said Shapiro, who met with Chávez for two hours on May 10.
Shapiro has also spoken with Vice President José Vicente Rangel and met with Alí Rodríguez, head of the state-owned PDVSA oil company, which owns 10,000 CITGO gas stations in the United States, and with several Cabinet ministers.
Helping to ease tensions, the State Department last week toned down the warning it had issued to U.S. citizens traveling here after the April coup attempt; the travel warning had angered Chávez government officials.
Although U.S. officials said the new travel advisory, reporting ''an improvement in Venezuela's political and security situation,'' simply reflected reality, Chávez's supporters took it more as a gesture of goodwill.
CHAVEZ MORE CAREFUL
Chávez has also been careful to avoid publicly and personally embracing the allegations of U.S. support for the April coup, generally saying only that he has received ''reports'' that ``must be investigated.''
His comments are designed to maintain correct relations with the United States while trying to win domestic support by projecting himself as a nationalist opposed by ''dark foreign forces,'' political analyst Aníbal Romero said.
Here's hoping that next time the plotters will remember that lesson.
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