Posted on 06/01/2005 7:44:37 PM PDT by Righty_McRight
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela on Wednesday condemned as "meddling" and "a provocation" President Bush's meeting at the White House with a prominent opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
In a move that strained already frayed relations, Bush met on Tuesday with Maria Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition activist who helped promote a recall referendum last year against left-winger Chavez. Chavez won and remains in office.
The nationalist Venezuelan leader, a fierce critic of Bush's policies, has branded Machado a "traitor" for receiving U.S. Congress funding for her pro-referendum activities in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
"I think this was a ... provocation," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez said on Wednesday in the Chavez government's first reaction to the Bush-Machado meeting.
"It's a form of meddling by the U.S. government in Venezuela's internal affairs," Rodriguez told reporters.
Hailed as a plucky civil rights campaigner by her U.S. backers, Machado is facing a trial in Venezuela on conspiracy charges after her Sumate organization received a $31,000 grant from the U.S. Congress-funded National Endowment for Democracy. The charge carries a possible 16-year jail term.
Machado is also accused of supporting a short-lived 2002 coup that briefly toppled Chavez. She denies any role in it.
Chavez has accused the NED, an organization that aims to promote democracy, of spearheading U.S. government attempts to topple him from the presidency of Venezuela, a major supplier of oil to the United States. Washington denies this.
Bush met Machado at a time when Venezuela and the United States were already at odds over a Venezuelan request for the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile wanted by Caracas for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner. The plane came down off Barbados and 73 people on board were killed.
CONGRESSIONAL VISIT SOURED
Chavez calls Posada, a former CIA collaborator and naturalized Venezuelan who escaped from a Venezuelan jail in 1985, a "terrorist." He has warned that if Washington does not return him to Venezuela, he will review bilateral relations.
U.S. authorities last week rejected an initial Venezuelan arrest request for Posada, saying more evidence was needed.
Posada, who is being held for entering the United States illegally, denies any involvement in the Cuban plane bombing.
The controversy over the Bush-Machado meeting also soured a visit to Venezuela by a U.S. congressional delegation.
One member of the delegation, Virginia Republican Rep. Frank Wolf (news, bio, voting record), told members of Venezuela's National Assembly that Americans did not understand "how this young lady from Sumate is being prosecuted for defending democratic principles."
Wolf, who chairs the Congress subcommittee responsible for allocating funds to organizations like the NED, said Venezuelan government persecution of Machado would probably result in more U.S. funds being channeled to her Sumate group.
His comments provoked an angry reaction from pro-Chavez deputies, who condemned Machado as a "coup plotter."
"Her being received by the Bush administration is just a smokescreen to distract attention from how the U.S. is protecting a terrorist like Posada," said Deputy Iris Varela.
The U.S. delegation leader, another Virginia Republican, Rep. Tom Davies, sought to play down the disagreement.
"We need to tone down the rhetoric," he said. He added the two countries should cooperate against drug-trafficking and terrorism.
Hey Hugo Bite me.
Conservative chicks are so hot. They don't look trashy and used up like Madonna.
I think it was a direct slap in the face of Chavez.
So what's he gonna do about it?
That's what I thought.
Is Hugo about to tell the U.S.A. whom we can meet?
Quite preposterous.
ping
"Republican" congressman Tom Davis: "tone down the rhetoric." "cooperate against drug trafficking and terrorism."
What planet is this idiot living on? Chavez is our ENEMY, Tom. Now, go back to sleep ...
A hot lady indeed ...
Chavez looks like a real mouth-breather, doesn't he?
Hot Da.n Hot,
Too many lines in her face. She's probably close to 50.
But what a bod! Oooohhhh ...
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