Cross-posted at DailyKos.
(Damn, where is it? Did I drop it under the desk in the Oval?)
As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice kicks off a tour of Latin America — “Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to raise concerns about Venezuela in a four-country tour through the region this week. Political analysts say she will have a hard time finding support.” — and as the U.S. weighs its “toughening stance” on Venezuela, comes this intriguing news:
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The United States’ top diplomat in Venezuela on Monday denied claims by President Hugo Chavez that a woman linked to the U.S. military had been arrested while photographing a military installation.
”I am absolutely sure that there was no detention of any U.S. official or soldier here in Venezuela during recent months,” said U.S. Ambassador William Brownsfield. … More below:
More from the AP/NYTimes story:
Chavez suggested the two separate incidents could be a sign that President Bush’s administration might be planning an invasion to take control of Venezuela’s immense oil reserves, a charge he has leveled before and which the Washington has denied.
Brownsfield said the U.S. Embassy in Caracas had not been notified about any such arrest. But he confirmed that in February a woman enlisted in the U.S. military lost a purse in the city of Maracay, home to Venezuela’s main air force base and numerous military installations.
The purse belonging to the woman contained her military ID card, passport and a disposable camera, said an American embassy official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The woman was dressed in civilian clothes and had been in the city to visit a military museum and was never detained, the official said.
<P.
The reports were the latest in an ongoing salvo of accusations and recriminations between Caracas and Washington …
The self-proclaimed revolutionary has accused the Bush administration of supporting efforts to oust him and of otherwise trying to undermine his government.
U.S. officials have criticized his close friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro and have cautioned that Chavez, a leftist former paratrooper, is a destabilizing force in the region.
In his speech Sunday, Chavez complained that Venezuelan-based U.S. officers participating in the military exchange program were spreading a negative image of his government to Venezuelan students.
U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli described the decision to end the program as ”unfortunate.”
I thought you’d get a kick out of these images:
These images sure make her trip look like a school field trip!
From the story in today’s NYT:
By JUAN FORERO
As President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela veers toward greater confrontation with Washington, the Bush administration is weighing a tougher approach, including funneling more money to foundations and business and political groups opposed to his leftist government, American officials say.
The Bush administration has already begun to urge Venezuela’s neighbors to distance themselves from Mr. Chávez and to raise concerns about press freedoms, judicial independence and the Venezuelan government’s affinity for leftist groups abroad, including Colombian guerrillas.
But it has found no allies so far in its attempts to isolate the Venezuelan leader, and it has grown more and more frustrated by Mr. Chávez’s strident anti-American outbursts and policies that seem intended to fly in the face of Washington. On Sunday, Mr. Chávez ended a 35-year military cooperation agreement and ordered out four American military instructors he accused of fomenting unrest.
The accusation, which American officials denied, was the latest blow to relations that had been bitter since the United States tacitly supported a coup that briefly ousted Mr. Chávez in April 2002. Since then his strength has grown. He won a recall election last August, and record high oil prices have left his government flush with money as it provides 15 percent of American oil imports.
American officials, who had chosen to ignore Mr. Chávez through much of last year, now recognize the need for a longer-term strategy to deal with a leader who is poised to win a second six-year term in elections next year.
A multiagency task force in Washington has been working on shaping a new approach, one that high-ranking American policy makers say would most likely veer toward a harder line. United States support for groups that Chávez supporters say oppose the government has been a source of tension in the past. Under the plans being considered, American officials said, that support may increase. …
How Venezuela is insulated from Washington:
The United States, he said, is particularly concerned because Venezuela is one of four top providers of foreign oil to the United States. “You can’t write him off,” the aide said of Mr. Chávez. “He’s sitting on an energy source that’s critical to us.”
A main problem for the United States is that Washington has little, if any, influence over Caracas. The high price of oil has left Venezuela with no need for the loans or other aid that the United States could use as leverage. …
or gunmen, wherever they may be. After three years of intensive crusading in Afghanistan, over a year in Iraq, and they admit to one individual as being “missing,” and they admit to him, it seems, because there was too much embedded press around when heads were counted.
Susan, I really appreciate that you are following this story. We get so little coverage of what is really going on in South America in English. (And my Spanish is limited.)
Does anyone have suggestions for sites on this?
http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/
— this one is said to be very good
http://daniel-venezuela.blogspot.com/
We should check these out and invite these people to blog here… ?
Susan, thanks for those suggestions. I have been pretty much using vheadline.com, but I wanted more. I have bookmarked them.
I like your Deadwood quote.
If Chavez somehow manages to break the yoke of being subject to “US interests”, and to make positive changes in that country that benefit the poor and undereducated, it’s possible we might finally see that area of the world rise up. Which, of course, is exactly what some in DC and other places wish to prevent.
I know the guy isn’t perfect by any means, but he’s certainly dynamic and is staking a place in the world.
The Condi pictures remind me of old 1950s ads. Not surprising, since that (and back even further) appears to be where this group wants to take us.
A man who passes
On hills and curves
Is not a man of iron nerves
He’s crazy
Burma Shave
The US routinely interferes with Venezuela’s “internal affairs”. I guess the US regards Venezuela as some kind of puppet state or colony and Chavez as an upstart.
Oh to the main point remember when some weirdos launched the short lived coup against Chavez? At the time I watched intensive coverage of that with a marine who thought it was extremely funny that anyone thought the US was not behind it. He actually claimed it was a not very well kept secret that many knew about. Amazing how the US media never found out about that one.
What caught my attention was that Frank Luntz was on Chris Matthews show a few days before the coup and he mentioned to Matthews that he was on his way to Venezuela. Matthews asked more about it and Luntz just smiled. I’ve been following it sporadically since then. I had already been following stories from Chile, especially re Pinochet.
Looks like I’m going to have to dig a little more into this story… because what Chavez said last Sunday was “we’ll put her where we have to” referencing the Navy woman.
That seems to imply she is still in Venezuela. But then other Spanish reports I saw said this incident happened months ago, which I believe the article you linked to says February.
It takes far too long for the full transcripts from the show to be published online so I can’t read the entire thing but I’ll see if I can find longer excerpts. Clearly Chavez wouldn’t bring this up unless he was darn sure of it..
Regrettably not ONE reporter has brought up this question in the State Dept’s daily briefings. Gosh sometimes I wish I could get in there, I’d ask some real hardballs.
Pax
p.s. for anyone who is interested, I wrote an article about what Chavez said over on ye olde blog (click on FTS below)
becoming a prostitute and writing right-wing garbage?
It might get you in the State Dept. briefings.
And your Chavez coverage has been awesome. It’s the only place I know to get the translations.
That now seems to be a thing of the past, after Caracas caught a US navy officer photographing an army base in Valencia, 100 kilometres north of the capital.
This article is via Trouthout and comes with a caveat: it is from Radio Netherlands and is probably following the Washington line on things. Also included is an article from the NYTimes and provides a slightly different take on things. here’s the link