Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s ambassador returned to Washington on Friday as the nations moved to repair strained diplomatic ties, but the sides are not completely ready to bury the hatchet.
Upon arriving in the US, Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez called the countries’ decision to restore top-level diplomatic envoys the “first step in normalizing relations.”
US Ambassador Patrick Duddy is expected to arrive in Caracas next week.
But late on Friday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said he’d spoken with Thomas Shannon, the top US diplomat for the Americas, to express concern over comments made by General Douglas Fraser, who took the helm of US military operations in Latin American and the Caribbean on Thursday.
CONCERN
Fraser had said he was concerned over an apparent military buildup in Venezuela.
“I don’t see a conventional military threat in the region, so I’m uncertain of why they see a need to build their military to the point that they are pursuing,” he said.
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