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(Second from left) Obama and Chavez (second from right) shake hands at the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on April 17, 2009. (AP)
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Washington, March 6 (Reuters): While the death of Venezuela’s stridently anti-American President Hugo Chavez yesterday raised hopes in Washington for better US-Venezuela relations, the Obama administration reacted cautiously as it weighed the prospects for a diplomatic thaw.
President Barack Obama quickly reached out to Venezuelans, expressing an interest in a “constructive relationship” in the post-Chavez era.
But analysts said it would be hard to make tangible progress when deep political uncertainty risks destabilising the South American oil-producing nation. Washington’s challenge will be to figure out how far to go in seizing the opening to engage with Venezuelan leaders as well as its political opposition without giving the impression of US meddling following the socialist president's death after a two-year battle with cancer.
“We’re not interested in having a confrontational relationship with Venezuela,” a senior US official told Reuters. “We’re going to have to see how things evolve. It’s a dynamic period.”
For Washington, a major test will be whether Venezuela follows its own Constitution — which has been widely interpreted to require a special election to pick Chavez’s successor — and if such a vote is conducted in a free and fair way in “accordance with hemispheric norms”, the official said.
Washington had accused Chavez and his allies of electoral abuses, such as intimidating foes and misusing state media during his 14-year rule.
Chavez had created headaches for successive US administrations with his strong anti-American rhetoric and his alliances with some of Washington’s main foes, including Cuba and Iran.
The question now is whether his leftist “revolution” and incendiary foreign policy can live on without his dominant personality at the helm. In a normally divided Washington, Chavez’s death brought a rare moment of bipartisan agreement, with Republicans and Democrats alike seeing it as a chance to turn a page after a long period of strained US-Venezuelan ties.
“Hugo Chavez was a destabilising force in Latin America, and an obstacle to progress in the region,” said Mike Rogers, a Republican from Michigan and chairman of the US House of Representatives intelligence committee. “I hope his death provides an opportunity for a new chapter in US-Venezuelan relations.”
“Hopefully there will be a peaceful transition of power in Venezuela with real, meaningful democratic reforms,” US Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida, said in a message on Twitter.
Obama called it a “challenging time” for Venezuela and — in a measured but not-so-subtle message to Vice-President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s preferred successor — said the US “remains committed to policies that promote democratic principles, the rule of law and respect for human rights”.
Taking the chill off the relationship between Washington and Caracas will not be easy.
Recent US efforts to improve long-dormant cooperation in areas like drug interdiction and regional security were favourably received at first in Caracas but ultimately failed to yield any real progress, the senior administration official said.
And Washington was quick to reject Maduro’s accusations, made just hours before his announcement of Chavez’s death, that the US had been engaged in a conspiracy against the President and Venezuela. “Their statements and actions today call into question their interest in having a functional and productive relationship with the US,” the official said.
Chavez accused the US of pursuing imperialist policies in the region as he used Venezuela’s oil wealth to bolster Leftist allies.
As for whether Washington hoped to see Venezuela move away from its alliance with communist-ruled Cuba, the US official said: “That’s up to them to determine who their partners are.”
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