Chávez offers soothing words at a wry gift to Obama at summit

[Jimmy2]

Tensions between the United States and Venezuela eased at the Summit of the Americas -- at least momentarily

BY FRANCES ROBLES

[email protected]

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- Hinting that relations between the two countries could finally be warming, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Saturday he may welcome back the U.S. ambassador who was kicked out of Caracas seven months ago.

But the Venezuelan leader topped off his warm handshake, kind words and uncharacteristically short speech during a group meeting with President Barack Obama with a back-handed gift: Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano's 1971 book Open Veins of Latin America, about the history of U.S. meddling in the region.

Its subtitle: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.

The inching toward rapprochement occurred on the first full day of the Fifth Summit of the Americas. Thirty-four of the hemisphere's leaders are gathered here to discuss everything from Cuba to the global financial crisis and climate change.

Chávez met with Obama during a meeting of South American leaders and spoke only briefly. He had an impromptu meeting afterward with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, where he suggested that he could take the first step toward ending a monthslong diplomatic tiff with Washington. After he threw out the U.S. ambassador, the United States expelled Venezuela's ambassador in Washington.

NEW AMBASSADOR

Chávez instructed Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro to put forward the name of the country's current ambassador to the Organization of American States, Roy Chaderton, for the Washington post in a quest to restore full diplomatic relations, the Venezuelan news agency announced Saturday evening.

''Now we have to wait for the United States to give Chaderton the go-ahead to assume this important post so we can drive toward a new political and economic era,'' Chávez told reporters at the summit.

White House officials said late Saturday that they were unaware of Chávez's announcement.

A State Department spokesman confirmed that Chávez and Clinton talked about ending their ambassadorial spat, and added, ``we would welcome the return of ambassadors.''

But senior U.S. officials cautioned that an upgrade in the relationship -- such as a return of both countries' ambassadors -- would depend on a new tone from Chávez after the summit. U.S. officials say the ''bigger indications'' may be a move by Chávez to make it easier for U.S. diplomats to get visas to get into Venezuela, as well as a toning down of anti-American rhetoric.

''President Chávez has been trying to reach out to President Obama over the last day,'' said Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough. ``But I know that President Obama recognizes that a smile and a handshake are not enough to indicate a new relationship. There will be bigger indications on whether Venezuela wants a new relationship.''

McDonough was referring to a widely circulated photograph taken by a Venezuelan presidential photographer, showing the two leaders sharing a casual raised handshake. The government quickly released the photo of Obama's hand warmly on Chávez's shoulder, characterizing the Friday night moment as ``historic.''

''I feel great optimism and the best of good will to advance,'' Chávez told reporters Saturday. ``We have started off on the right foot. It's time to have a true start of a new history.''

Last year's yanking of the ambassadors was the result of a diplomatic flap that started in Bolivia.

Chávez kicked U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy out of Caracas last September in solidarity with Bolivia's Evo Morales, who had expelled the top U.S. diplomat from La Paz for allegedly conspiring with the opposition and inciting violence.

''Given what the president is saying about dialogue with these countries, dialogue has obviously helped when ambassadors are in place,'' said a senior U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed to the press. ``. . . But the kicking out of ambassadors is something that the Venezuelans did in solidarity with the Bolivians, actually. And it seems to me that . . . the ball is in their court to try to fix that issue if we're going to have real dialogue.''

At a news conference Saturday, Morales accused Washington of continuing to conspire against him.

''One hundred days have gone by, and we in Bolivia have yet to feel any changes,'' Morales said, referring to Obama's period in office. ``The policy of conspiracy continues.''

In a plenary meeting later in the day, Chávez told the presidents that ''at least Obama listens and takes notes,'' Felipe Noguera, a summit spokesman, recalled.

At least one expert said Chávez was being duplicitous by offering kind words and a cynical gift.

''I think presenting the president of the United States with Galeano's Open Veins is far from being an act of friendship -- it's an act of hostility,'' said University of California at San Diego professor Richard Feinberg, a former National Security Council senior advisor who attended the summit. ``It's as if you are taking someone's hand and smiling while you are knifing them in the back.''

The book, he said, is similar to the Noam Chomsky tomes that Chávez once brandished at the United Nations, which blame ``all the world's ills on American imperialism.''

Obama's reaction to the gift: ''I thought it was one of Chávez's books,'' he said. ``I was going to give him one of mine.''

Chávez, who has publicly said he will not sign the summit's final declaration, appears to be trying to disrupt hemispheric cooperation without making the spectacle he exhibited in the last summit in Argentina five years ago, Feinberg said. Instead, he said, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and Argentina's Cristina Fernández de Kirchner served as his ``attack dogs.''

EMBARGO AN ISSUE

The dozen leaders who met with Obama on Saturday used the opportunity to speak out against the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba and past American interventions in the region, according to a senior U.S. administration official.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet chaired Obama's 75-minute meeting with the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). The U.S. government official who briefed reporters about the meeting said the session was cordial, with ''no tension'' and a good bit of ''frank discussion.'' The issue of Cuba took up about 20 percent of the meeting's time, as a number of South American leaders urged Obama to lift the U.S. embargo.

Obama countered that each of the presidents present was elected democratically -- so they should ensure that democracy and rule of law are priorities in Cuba, too.