Posted on 04/14/2002 4:01:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
LINKS to Hugo Chavez's "government" June 2001 - March 2002
I'm keeping track of Hugoland formally known as Venezuela. Please LINK any stories or add what you wish to this thread. The above LINK takes you to past articles posted before the new FR format. Below I'll add what I've catalogued since that LINK no longer could take posts.
(March 1, 2002)-- Venezuela's strongman faces widespread calls to step down
By Phil Gunson | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
[Full Text] CARACAS, VENEZUELA - The man who won Venezuelan hearts three years ago as a strongman who could deliver a better life to the masses is now facing them in the streets.
More than 20,000 people turned out this week calling for the resignation of President Hugo Chávez, while some 2,000 supporters marched in a rival demonstration of support. The demonstrations come after months of building discontent with a president who has managed to alienate the labor class, the media, business groups, the church, political parties, and the military.
Four military leaders have publicly called for his resignation.
In November, Chávez introduced 49 "revolutionary" decrees. The package of laws - affecting everything from land rights and fisheries to the oil industry - unified virtually the whole of organized society in a nationwide business and labor stoppage that paralyzed the country on Dec. 10.
The protests this week have a note of irony, because they started out as a commemoration called by President Chávez. In his eyes, Feb. 27 is a milestone of his so-called revolution - "the date on which the people awoke" in 1989. That is when thousands of rioters and looters took to the streets in protest of an IMF-backed austerity plan, in which the government hiked gas prices.
In what became known as the caracazo, or noisy protest, thousands of rioters and looters were met by Venezuelan military forces, and hundreds were killed. Three years later, Chávez and his military co-conspirators failed in an attempt to overthrow the government responsible for the massacre, that of President Carlos Andres Perez. Chávez was jailed for two years.
"But the elements that brought about the caracazo are still present in Venezuela," says lawyer Liliana Ortega, who for 13 years has led the fight for justice on behalf of the victims' relatives. "Poverty, corruption, impunity ... some of them are perhaps even more deeply ingrained than before."
Chávez's supporters consist of an inchoate mass of street traders, the unemployed, and those whom the old system had marginalized. This, to Chávez, is el pueblo - the people.
"But we are 'the people' too," protests teacher Luis Leonet. "We're not oligarchs like he says. The oligarchs are people like Chávez, people with power."
On Wednesday, Leonet joined a march led by the main labor confederation, the CTV, to protest what unions say is a series of antilabor measures, including one of the 49 decrees dealing with public-sector workers.
Chávez won't talk to the CTV, whose leaders, he says, are corrupt and illegitimate. So he refuses to negotiate the annual renewal of collective contracts with the confederation, holding up deals on pay and conditions for hundreds of thousands of union members like Leonet.
Across town on Wednesday, a progovernment march sought to demonstrate that the president's popularity was as high as ever.
"For the popular classes, Chávez is an idol," says marcher Pedro Gutierrez.
Pollster Luis Vicente Leon, of the Datanalisis organization, warns that marches are no measure of relative popularity. "There is a lot of discontent among ... the really poor," Leon says, adding that so far the protests are mainly among the middle class.
But the middle class can be a dangerous enemy. It includes the bulk of the armed forces, and the management of the state oil company, PDVSA.
This month, four uniformed officers, ranging from a National Guard captain to a rear-admiral and an Air Force general, called on the president to resign, while repudiating the idea of a military coup of Chávez, himself a former Army lieutenant-colonel.
But senior "institutionalist" officers "are under severe pressure from lower ranks frustrated at the lack of impact" that these acts have had, a source close to military dissidents says. In other words, a coup cannot be ruled out, although the United States publicly denounces the idea.
Meanwhile, the president's imposition of a new board of directors on PDVSA this week sparked a virtual uprising by the company's senior management. In an unprecedented public statement, managers said the government was pushing the company "to the verge of operational and financial collapse" by imposing political, rather than commercial, criteria.
The political opposition remains relatively weak and divided. But in the view of many analysts, a president who offends both the military and the oil industry is asking for trouble. In the bars and restaurants of Caracas, the debate is no longer over whether Chávez will finish his term, which has nearly five years to run. It is when and how he will go - and what comes next. [End]
Rebel military officers ousted Chavez on April 12, a day after 17 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in an opposition march. Chavez was reinstated April 14 following protests by his supporters and foreign governments. Dozens of people died in riots and looting during Chavez's ouster. Chavez was on his first foreign trip Friday since the coup, attending a European Union-Latin America summit in Spain. He was to return Saturday.
Speculation about a new uprising included reports that the president's family had left Venezuela, that government ministers were in military custody and that high-ranking military officers were deploying tanks and troops to launch a coup. "The most tangible proof that there isn't a problem is that (Chavez) traveled abroad," said Rangel. "There would be a basis for suspicion" if Chavez didn't go, Rangel said. The U.S. State Department on Wednesday eased a travel warning for American citizens visiting Venezuela, though it cautioned that demonstrations and unrest can erupt at any time and urged Americans not to visit regions bordering Colombia due to kidnapping threats. [End]
Latin American leaders asked Europe to offer practical help and not dictate solutions. "We are not here to be lectured at. We will only accept advice," said Argentine Foreign Minister Carlos Ruckhauf. At the request of Colombian President Andres Pastrana, EU leaders agreed to consider adding the leftist guerrilla group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to the EU terrorist list. Latin America has been shaken in recent months by the collapse of the Argentine economy, political chaos in Venezuela and resurgent violence in Colombia. The summit marked the first trip abroad for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez since a failed coup against him in April.
The EU initialed a new "association agreement" with Chile, which will free up $7.7 billion worth of trade. The deal, which will be signed formally in a few months, comes two years after a similar accord with Mexico. Despite concerns about economic progress, EU-Latin American trade has doubled over the past decade, making the region the EU's second largest trading partner. EU exports totaled $51 billion while its imports from Latin America amounted to $45.6 billion. [End]
The Venezuelan leader, who won fame in a failed 1992 coup against painful International Monetary Fund-backed reforms in his oil-rich nation, said an international pledge at the Millennium Summit in 2000 to halve world poverty appeared to have been forgotten. "I don't think there is any political will in the world at the moment to do that," the Venezuelan leader said. "We are in a labyrinth with no escape". He added that the European Union and Latin America had made little progress towards a "strategic alliance" since the first meeting of regional leaders in Rio de Janeiro in 1999. "What have we done in the last three years? We have not taken may steps forward," he added. "I do not see any trace of grand policy at these summits."
No stranger to controversy, Chavez's three-year-old "democratic revolution" has divided his South American nation along class lines, with many among the poor majority keeping faith with his pledge to increase social justice despite bitter opposition from economic elites.***
During a public National Assembly hearing, Vasquez Velazco said he was physically present at several meetings in which Chavez and other senior government officials discussed using Bolivarian Circle militia members -- combined with soldiers supported by tanks -- to provoke a violent confrontation with anti-Chavez groups and then use the National Armed Forces (FAN) to restore order under martial law. Vasquez Velasco testified that he met with Chavez on Jan. 23 to discuss domestic national security issues and became "very worried" by the president's remarks, but he declined to elaborate further in his testimony. He also said that two weeks later, on Feb. 7, he attended a security planning session in then-Vice President Diosdado Cabello's office, which also included then-Defense Minister Jose Vicente Rangel and then-Interior and Justice Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, the FAN's top commanding officers, and several senior members of the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) party.
Vasquez Velasco testified that he attended a second planning session at Miraflores presidential palace during the height of the Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) strike on April 7. At that meeting, which included ministers like Cabello and Rangel as well as the attorney general, senior FAN officials and MVR leaders, the Chavez regime's Political Committee of the Revolution -- which is headed by a former Marxist guerrilla -- was assigned the task of controlling the Bolivarian Circles and public sector unions charged with disrupting the PDVSA strike and any resulting anti-Chavez protests. The Bolivarian Circles were given the mission of occupying areas around the presidential palace and PDVSA's office buildings throughout Caracas, while "regional commands" in the interior were tasked with transporting Bolivarian Circle members to Caracas to heighten the public's confusion by spreading oil and nails in the streets to tie up vehicle traffic.***
Gen. Guillermo Rangél, once regarded as a radical Chavista, sparked a standoff last week when he refused to turn over command of the 41st Armored Brigade to a colonel. Eventually, he turned it over to his immediate superior, who then turned it over to the colonel.
Chávez, who under his tailor-made 1999 constitution has the power to make all military assignments and promotions, appears to have tried to appoint loyalists to the newly vacant slots.***
For instance, a group of 30 DISIP officials charged in sworn depositions on May 14 that DISIP personnel and resources were being used to train and arm some Bolivarian Circles. On May 20, Air Force Brig. Gen. Pedro Pereira testified that members of the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) party had racked up 500 hours of military flight time on missions to indoctrinate Bolivarian Circle members. The use of government resources for purposes of political indoctrination is illegal, but the Chavez regime routinely has ignored the constitution in advancing its agenda.
Meanwhile, sources say government investigators have identified four of the rooftop snipers from April 11: an army major and lieutenant colonel assigned to the presidential guard and two DISIP agents. The sources say the government confirmed these identities nearly six weeks ago but has kept the information secret because it directly implicates National Armed Forces (FAN) and political security officials close to Chavez. They also say that all four shooters received their military sniper training in Cuba and belonged to an unofficial team that was coordinated outside FAN and DISIP command and control channels by Otaiza.
Meanwhile, Otaiza's interview with El Nacional in which he charged that rogue DISIP agents are planning an ethnic cleansing campaign appears to form part of a government strategy that increasingly employs obvious threats and intimidation of political opponents. For example, Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel warned recently that the only alternative to dialogue is civil war, while Interior and Justice Minister Diosdado Cabello claimed in National Assembly testimony last week that the Bolivarian Circles now number nearly 1.5 million people throughout Venezuela.
However, these intimidation tactics do not appear to be working. Military sources opposed to Chavez immediately dismissed Cabello's numbers as wildly false, saying the true number of Bolivarian Circle members is less than 10,000. They also pledged that the FAN would intervene decisively if the circles ever resorted to mass violence.***
Carmona's escape came a day after an appeals court ordered him transferred from house arrest to jail. Echeverria said the ruling, which was cannot be appealed, violated Carmona's right to be tried in freedom. Carmona, 60, was being held pending charges of rebellion and conspiracy. He faces up to 20 years in prison. Carmona disappeared Thursday morning after going for a walk outside his home in a western Caracas neighborhood, his lawyer, Juan Martin Echeverria had said earlier. Echeverria had said he did not know where Carmona was. Secret police vehicles had been posted outside the apartment building since the early morning. It was not immediately clear how Carmona eluded the police.***
"You won't have trade promotion authority (because) you could change part of the agreement, so how are you going to get countries to negotiate with you," said Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, a key Republican who helped draft the bill. It is unclear whether Republicans have enough support to remove that provision when they meet with House negotiators over differences in the two chambers' bills. In December, the House passed a Bush-backed trade bill by one vote. ***
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.***
Officials from Cupet, the Cuban oil company, visited Caracas earlier this month in an effort to renew the eight monthly cargoes, a spokesman for the Venezuelan Energy and Mines Ministry said………………….. During last month's brief 48-hour ouster of Chávez, managers at PDVSA announced that they would immediately suspend the Cuba supply contract. Employees gathered at an assembly cheered and applauded. But PDVSA President Ali Rodríguez, a former leftist guerrilla, said upon taking the post last month that the Cuban contract would be honored.***
The US Ambassador to Colombia, Anne Patterson, went to Mr Uribe's campaign headquarters at a Bogota hotel to congratulate him once the result became clear. "Colombia and the US have many big issues to deal with - drug trafficking, human rights and the fight against terrorism," she said. "We're ready to work with the next government."
However, with the Chavez regime facing a cash flow shortfall estimated at nearly $11 billion -- due to its rapidly pending liabilities to state governments, workers and foreign and domestic creditors -- it's likely that PDVSA's funds are no longer in the FIEM. In fact, in order for PDVSA to withdraw the $4 billion, Venezuela's Central Bank likely would have to draw down its international reserves by an identical amount. Following a first quarter 2002 GDP contraction of 4.2 percent and a $3.7 billion balance of payments deficit, the Central Bank can't transfer $4 billion of its declining foreign exchange reserves to PDVSA without accelerating the currency's devaluation and raising interest rates even higher.
With the economy sinking deeper into recession and PDVSA in worsening financial health, continuing oil shipments to Cuba is a politically untenable proposition. The current oil supply agreement is highly unpopular within PDVSA and sectors of the armed forces opposed to closer ties with the Castro regime. Chavez likely will have more clashes in coming weeks with his political opponents, including moderates within his own camp. While the oil supply agreement has not been rescinded officially, the de facto suspension of more oil shipments to Cuba may help to defuse at least some of the tensions within potential flashpoint groups like the military and PDVSA.***
To breech the gap, the government announced an emergency fiscal program that will combine higher tax levies, loans, and spending cuts. Officials plan to shave 10 to 12 percent from public spending and seek $3.5 billion in foreign financing, a move that Chávez had vowed since his 1998 election campaign to never make. Minister Nóbrega said he expects to raise about $1 billion from multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and Interamerican Development Bank, and the rest from private banks.
Venezuelans will also have to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for tax hikes. The 14.5 percent sales tax will be boosted to 15.5 percent and the array of products exempted from the tax reduced. A 0.75 percent tax on bank transactions will be raised to 1 percent, while the individual income tax rate will be increased and deductions decreased. The tax on liquor and tobacco products will also be increased slightly, as will efforts to combat income tax and customs duties evasion.***
[Full Text] In March, Gen. Charles Wilhelm, chief of the U.S. Southern Command, broached the idea of a U.S.-run military outpost on Venezuela's frontier with Colombia, according to Venezuelan officials familiar with the discussions. The proposal was raised in private meetings involving Wilhelm, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez and Chavez's national security advisers.
The U.S. rationale for the base would be to block the passage of Colombian guerrillas and drug smugglers into Venezuela. The sources said the United States wanted an American-run base as part of a string of outposts in countries bordering Colombia.
When that proposal was flatly rejected, the sources said, Wilhelm's delegation countered with a plan for a Venezuelan base that would involve American "military advisers" and hi-tech U.S. equipment, including a computer center, a satellite link, radar and other electronic hardware.
While the Americans would control the technology, Venezuelan officers would have free access to the compound, the sources said. An American source said Chavez agreed to give this second option "serious" consideration.
If approved by Chavez, the Venezuelan base would become one of a small network of U.S. listening posts around Colombia. Venezuelan sources said similar U.S.-supported outposts are in the works in Peru and Ecuador to Colombia's south and Panama to Colombia's northwest.
Venezuela, however, has the longest common border with Colombia, stretching some 1,000 miles from mountainous terrain near the Caribbean to the jungles of the Amazon Basin. The fifth country that borders Colombia is Brazil.
The base proposal accompanied Wilhelm's blunt assessment of the deteriorating situation in Colombia, according to the sources. The general argued that the Venezuelan base was needed because the Colombian army had failed to bring the insurgencies there under control. He said the Colombian conflict now was threatening to spill over into neighboring countries.
Retired Venezuelan Gen. Jose Antonio Olavarria said Wilhelm told Chavez that the Colombian army was unlikely to defeat the guerrilla forces that have been fighting for more than 40 years and now control many rural areas. Nor does the Pentagon think that a negotiated settlement between the guerrillas and Colombian President Andres Pastrana is likely.
As evidence that the guerrillas have no intention of accepting Pastrana's peace initiatives, the U.S. general cited the Colombian guerrilla role in the slaying of three American environmentalists who were on a scientific mission with the indigenous U'wa tribe in early March. Their bodies were found across the border in Venezuela.
A commando of the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia [FARC] admitted shooting the Americans for having "entered the U'wa region without authorization." FARC leaders, however, called the shooting an "error" and announced plans to try the commando for murder.
On March 17, at the end of his three-day visit, Wilhelm tempered his public remarks about the Colombian situation. In a press release, Wilhelm simply praised Venezuela's support for the peace process in Colombia. "After talks with President Chavez, I am convinced that Colombia has two friends [the United States and Venezuela] who are ready to help," the general said.
Though Chavez reportedly was giving a hard look at Wilhelm's information about the Colombian threat, some of Chavez's top aides dismissed Wilhelm's alarms.
"All this about guerrilla invasions is a lot of BS invented by the Americans to establish a base in our country," complained Interior Minister Luis Miquilena, a former Venezuelan guerrilla fighter himself. "We have plenty of resources to stop them [the Colombians] from crossing the border."
But Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel sounded at least sympathetic to Wilhelm's warnings. "We have very disturbing information which leads us to believe that the Colombian armed conflict tends to get more complicated [and] we have to take the firm determination to stop the contamination, but it is practically impossible to prevent certain Colombian violent manifestations from spilling into Venezuelan territory."
To demonstrate Venezuelan resolve against that spreading violence, Chavez himself donned a military uniform and traveled to the border. His message was that Venezuelan troops would take action to seal off the frontier against incursions by the warring Colombian factions.
But Colombian authorities are clearly suspicious of Chavez. They have accused Venezuela of granting sanctuary to Colombian guerrillas, especially in the western oil state of Maracaibo which is governed by a Chavez ally. Some Colombians charge that while Chavez is hosting peace talks and paying lip service to reconciliation, he is quietly siding with the insurgents.
These gripes escalated when Chavez declared himself "neutral" in Colombia's civil war and suggested that the FARC effectively had earned "belligerent status" which would enhance its standing with world governments. In retaliation, Colombia's President Pastrana canceled a border summit with his Venezuelan counterpart.
Raising tensions even higher, Colombia's right-wing paramilitary leader, Carlos Castano, threatened to chase rebels all the way to Caracas if Chavez converts "his country into a refuge for the guerrillas."
Foreign Minister Rangel countered that Venezuela would repel any Colombian incursions "be it paramilitaries, guerrillas or the Colombian armed forces."
On April 13, in testimony before Congress, Wilhelm confirmed that he spoke with Chavez about the security situation along the Colombian border and other U.S. concerns about Venezuela's oil reserves which account for the largest share of U.S. oil imports. But Wilhelm offered few details.
"We've watched with considerable interest the emergence of the new regime there," Wilhelm told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Of course, Mr. Chavez rode into the presidency on the heels of a very, very strong popular mandate, and he's undertaken a very vigorous program of reform within Venezuela. From a security standpoint, he has made some rather significant changes in the way he is employing the armed force. …
"Our concern, however, and one that I expressed to him, was that this could not help but deduct from the forces that were committed on the border with Colombia. And in times past, Venezuela has mounted a most effective campaign to isolate the problems in Colombia from its oil soil. In fact, they have about 10,000 troops disposed along the border."
While worried about any cuts in those border forces, Wilhelm praised Chavez's strategy for integrating the military more thoroughly into Venezuelan society. That project, called Bolivar 2000, has the goal of correcting "some of the deficiencies in the infrastructure in the country [and] provides agricultural assistance right down into putting soldiers into the classrooms, which is all well and good," the general said.
During the March visit, Wilhelm's endorsement of the Bolivar 2000 project caught Chavez by surprise. The president's pet project sets up 40 "attention centers" throughout the country to hear about and tend to emergency problems of the sick and the poor.
Chavez's concern for the poor has buoyed his popularity, though many wealthier Venezuelans complain that the president is ignoring broader economic problems.
The Clinton administration apparently sees Bolivar 2000 and similar programs for the downtrodden as important to prevent the spread of leftist movements that offer more radical alternatives. The initiatives also are seen as a way to block narco-traffickers from gaining a broad national following simply by providing jobs. According to well-placed sources, the U.S. government hopes that a popular Chavez can help Venezuela avoid the danger of "Colombianization."
In the 1960s, the Venezuelan governments of Betancourt and Leoni followed similar social strategies. With windfall profits from the oil bonanza, those governments handed out money and favors, successfully countering Castroite guerrillas who asked the people to risk their lives in a revolution that held no guarantees of a better life.
By contrast, in Colombia, the drug cartels can easily outbid the government for the loyalty of Colombians seeking only a more comfortable life. The Colombian guerrillas have succeeded, in part, by challenging the inequities in the social-political structures.
Despite Chavez's political popularity and other pluses, his rise has worried Washington. In 1992, as a paratroop colonel, Chavez led an aborted coup against what he considered a corrupt Venezuelan government. He also made no secret that he admired Fidel Castro and sought the Cuban leader's friendship.
Because he had tried to overthrow an elected government allied with the United States and cozied up to Castro, the State Department treated Chavez as a pariah. In 1998, signaling U.S. displeasure with Chavez, the State Department rejected his application for a visa to travel to the United States.
The reason given was his role as a revolutionary who challenged a democratically elected government. At the time, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright described the snub as a matter of principle, not personal disapproval.
In 1998, Washington still nursed the hope that Yale-educated economist Enrique Salas Romer, a former state governor, could line up enough support from other political forces to defeat Chavez. Instead, Chavez won a landslide victory. The State Department had suffered an indirect loss.
Despite its nervousness, Washington recognized the 44-year-old Chavez as the duly elected president. In January, Chavez made a whirlwind victory tour of Europe and North America, including a White House meeting with President Clinton. Clinton invited Chavez to return for an official state visit by the end of February, after his inauguration.
But the U.S. government put the state visit on indefinite hold after Chavez made controversial statements that were seen as anti-democratic. Chavez raised eyebrows with his stubborn idea of scrapping the constitution which he claimed "aids and abets only the corrupt" and replacing it with "an original" constitution.
Some influential Venezuelans were unnerved, too, by his fondness for giving long messianic speeches on television. "All he wants is a free hand so he can establish the rules of an authoritarian if not despotic regime," claimed presidential runner-up Salas Romer.
The private sector complained that Chavez pays no attention to business concerns and goes overboard defending populist causes that make him a hero to the poor. In one case, squatters invaded private land and won the president's sympathy. He called them "poor devils who have no home nor place to cultivate a piece of land."
In an open letter to Chavez on March 27, economist Emeterio Gomez warned Chavez that as long as he failed to respect private property, no foreign investor will put money into Venezuela "no matter what other incentives you may offer."
Gomez added, "the country has come to an economic standstill and the government has yet to come forth with economic policies to work with."
Even some Chavez backers have chafed under the president's autocratic style. Jorge Olavarria, a former Chavez political adviser, resigned from a constitution-drafting committee, charging that Chavez "only wants to listen to himself." Only two aides -- Interior Minister Luis Miquilena and Defense Minister Raul Salazar -- are said to have enough courage to differ openly with Chavez.
But the vast majority of Venezuelans say they favor a president who puts them ahead of the business elite. A poll by MercAnalysis in the middle of March found that 78 percent of Venezuelans believe Chavez is on the right track. They also praised his concern for the poor.
On April 25, voters gave Chavez a an overwhelming victory in a referendum for convening a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. Although turnout was light, about 90 percent of those casting ballots approved the Chavez initiative. One of his goals is to change the constitution to allow himself to seek a second term.
In another controversial initiative, Chavez has moved against the autonomy of the giant state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA. Chavez has denounced the company as a "state within a state" and demanded that it be "subordinate" to the government, positions that make the country's business leaders -- as well as U.S. officials -- nervous.
The prospects for the Washington-Caracas relationship remains uncertain for other reasons of foreign policy, particularly Chavez's sympathy for Cuba's Fidel Castro.
Foreign Minister Rangel complained that "at times there have been pressures" from U.S. officials trying to rein in Venezuela's foreign policy, especially its support for Cuba, Iran and China in United Nations votes on human rights issues.
"Venezuela doesn't allow itself to be pressured by anyone,'' Rangel told reporters.
Rangel's complaint prompted a message from President Clinton to President Chavez via Venezuelan Ambassador Alfredo Toro Hardy. Clinton's message was that the United States supports Chavez's public commitment to respect democracy.
But one well-placed Venezuelan source said Chavez also was receiving advice from Fidel Castro, who has known Chavez for a number of years. The source said Castro's advice was to "carry out the business you have to carry out with the U.S. but never get too friendly. ... To maintain a certain distance means more respect."
But some observers of the strained relations between Washington and Caracas see the current situation as only the latest chapter in a long history.
In the complicated U.S.-Venezuelan relationship, national differences are balanced against the Realpolitik U.S. need for Venezuela's oil and Venezuela's need to do business with the United States.
For decades, political tension has been a normal part of that bilateral relationship. Former diplomat Leopoldo Taylhardat noted that the two countries have survived many ups and downs since the discovery of Venezuelan oil reserves in the 1930s.
"Ours [the U.S.-Venezuelan relationship] has never involved a great romance and it is more like a marriage of convenience," Taylhardat observed. "But it is nevertheless a marriage and there are no signs that the convenience will disappear anytime soon."
Now, Washington wants Venezuela as an ally in a containment strategy against more radical political models for Latin America, particularly those represented by the powerful Colombian rebel movements.
How President Chavez responds to the proposed U.S. outpost could influence both the direction of the Washington-Caracas relationship and the political-military future of the northwest quadrant of South America. [End]
Tony Bianchi is editor of Venezuela Online News and Venezuela Oil & Energy at www.vzlanet.com.
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