U.S. Renews
Hard Line on Venezuela
Washington - U.S. officials are scrambling to assert that the Obama
administration hasn't softened U.S. policy toward Venezuela, where
President Hugo Chávez recently won a controversial referendum
allowing him to run for office as many times as he wants.
Last week, acting State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid surprised
some observers when he said that Venezuela's election "was held
consistent with democratic principles," though he also mentioned
some "troubling reports of intimidation of opponents."
The remarks set off a furor among Venezuelan opposition activists
and some commentators because the description of Venezuela's
referendum seemed markedly different from the tone set by the Bush
administration, which repeatedly voiced worry that Mr. Chávez was
undermining Venezuela's democracy.
U.S. officials say they continue to be very concerned about
Venezuela, one of the leading suppliers of oil to the U.S.
"The state of health of democracy in Venezuela is not very good,"
said a State Department official, adding that the U.S. also
continued to be concerned that Venezuela's continuing support for
Colombia's drug-funded communist guerrillas is undermining democracy
in the region. "There's no change in policy," he added.
The strong words from Washington come a week after Mr. Chávez won
his bid to scrap term limits.
The electoral process was marked by the massive spending of state
resources on the Chávez campaign, where, among other things, the
state-dominated media endlessly broadcast Mr. Chávez's message.
As has become usual in Venezuelan campaigns, there were implied
threats that thousands of state workers would lose their jobs if
they voted against the president.
Police also broke up protest marches by university students calling
on Venezuelans to oppose the measure.
In that context, Mr. Duguid's remarks created some controversy. "It
wasn't exactly a presidential blessing, but Venezuelan strongman
Hugo Chávez has to be pleased -- and maybe even a little
astonished," said an editorial in the Houston Chronicle following
the initial State Department comments. "The Obama State Department
has declared that Venezuela's recent referendum on term limits was
by and large democratic."
The State Department official said the spokesman's words had been
"misinterpreted" by the media. They had little echo in Venezuela;
the loquacious Mr. Chávez didn't pick up on them. But the flap
indicates how much the world is expecting changes in policies toward
traditionally hostile nations under the Obama administration.
It appears little has changed in the U.S.'s testy relationship with
Mr. Chávez. Last month, shortly before his inauguration, Mr. Obama,
in an interview with the U.S. Spanish-language network Univision,
said Mr. Chávez had hindered progress in Latin America, and
expressed concern about the Venezuela's ties with Colombia's FARC
guerrillas, who are considered a terrorist group by the U.S.
Mr. Chávez, who won some sympathy in Venezuela and elsewhere for
regularly attacking George W. Bush, has seemed unsure of how to
approach Mr. Obama.
At first Mr. Chávez attacked the president-elect, but lately he has
been saying that there could be dialogue between the two.
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