The US and Venezuela are starting the year without ambassadors in Caracas and Washington because of an intensifying diplomatic dispute that is likely to persist and boost Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s long-standing antagonism.
Both sides have shown firmly entrenched stances and no willingness to compromise in the past week as the US government revoked the Venezuelan ambassador’s visa in response to Chavez’s refusal to accept the chosen US envoy.
“They thought we were going to back down. Anything negative that happens will be the responsibility of the United States,” veteran Venezuelan diplomat Roy Chaderton told the Caracas-based television channel Telesur on Thursday.
Chaderton, a close Chavez ally and former foreign minister, said the Venezuelan government is “studying the case with sensitivity ... and will make the respective decisions.”
Chavez skipped an opportunity to respond during a three-hour speech on Thursday night, saying nothing about the US government’s decision to revoke the visa of his ambassador, Bernardo Alvarez.
US President Barack Obama’s administration took that step in response to Chavez’s rejection of Larry Palmer, the White House nominee for ambassador who has been awaiting Senate confirmation.
It is unclear what concrete effects those actions could have on US-Venezuela relations. Diplomats from the two countries have already long had reduced contacts because of tensions fed both by Chavez’s condemnations of the US and also by the US Department of State’s criticisms of deteriorating democracy in Venezuela.
“Much of the cooperation between the United States and Venezuela in recent years has involved lower-level and lower--profile individuals and agencies than the ambassadors, so the immediate fallout will be limited,” said Shannon O’Neil, a fellow for Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “But this latest round of escalating tensions ends any hope for calmer relations or more expansive cooperation. Demonizing the United States remains too important a political foil for Chavez.”
Palmer angered Chavez by suggesting earlier this year — in written responses to questions from Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana — that morale is low in Venezuela’s military and that he is concerned Colombian rebels are finding refuge in Venezuela.
Chavez has accused Palmer of dishonoring the Venezuelan government by expressing concerns on several sensitive subjects — including 2008 accusations by the US Treasury Department that three members of Chavez’s inner circle helped Colombian rebels by supplying arms and aiding drug--trafficking operations.
“This outcome was predictable from the moment Palmer’s comments were made public by Senator Lugar in July,” said Miguel Tinker Salas, a Latin American studies professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California. “For the State Department to allow this predictable outcome to develop shows that they had no interest in improving relations with Venezuela.”
Chavez had vowed not to back down in his opposition to Palmer and dared the US government to expel Alvarez before diplomats confirmed on Wednesday that his visa was revoked.
Alvarez was outside the US when the action was taken, preventing his return.
US Department of State spokesman Mark Toner said earlier this week that the US hoped to improve strained relations with Venezuela.
“We believe it is precisely -because there are tensions in the relationship that it is important to maintain diplomatic communications at the highest level,” Toner said.
The US embassy has been without an ambassador since Patrick Duddy finished his assignment and left in July.
A previous dispute prompted similar expulsions of ambassadors at the end of fomer US president George W. Bush’s administration. In September 2008, Chavez expelled Duddy and withdrew his own -envoy, saying it was in solidarity with Bolivia after Bolivian President Evo Morales ordered out the US ambassador and accused him of helping the opposition incite violence. The Bush administration denied it and reacted by expelling the envoys of Venezuela and Bolivia.
After more than nine months, in June last year, the Obama administration and Chavez’s government announced they were restoring their ambassadors.
Since then, the relationship has again grown more hostile.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS