Free Republic

The U.S. government eagerly reached out to Venezuelan presidential candidate Hugo Chavez in 1998 and moved quickly to denounce a rumored coup plot against the man who's become one of the Bush administration's archenemies, newly declassified State Department documents obtained by McClatchy Newspapers reveal. State Department officials initially appeared dazzled by Chavez's oversized persona and his promise for sweeping reforms, and seemed sincere in their efforts to help him, the documents show. Some of those overtures drew positive responses from Chavez, who said he wanted U.S. help in fighting corruption and drug trafficking.... ...A Jan. 20, 1999, cable setting the...

<p>WASHINGTON - It was both an auspicious and ominous way to begin the week: Auspicious because of President George Bush's resolute demand that Saddam Hussein and his sons leave Iraq. There were also ominous noises from his predecessor in the White House, Bill Clinton, who bared not only his antagonism to the president but his horror at envisioning a strong America.</p>

Much of South America is spiraling into a political and economic morass that invites not only further demographic dislocation but an unprecedented haven for terrorism and political extremism. Yet in the Bush administration, only the Department of Defense (DoD) seems to be presenting a plan to salvage a democratic future for the region, even as the State Department and the National Security Council (NSC) offer only what one observer calls "bureaucratic bromides." U.S. inattention to its neighbors is reaping a bitter harvest: * Colombia, under a new, pro-U.S. president committed to smashing his country's two Marxist-Leninist narcoterrorist groups and eradicating...