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.
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