[R-G] U.S. Renews Hard Line on Venezuela

[Anthony Fenton]

     * FEBRUARY 23, 2009

U.S. Renews Hard Line on Venezuela
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123534981856744765.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

By JOSé DE CORDOBA

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.

Write to José de Córdoba at jose.decordoba at wsj.com