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U.S.-Venezuela ties may warm post-Chavez

Though his immediate successors probably won't jettison his socialist policies, they're seen as unlikely to have the same hunger for regional leadership.

March 06, 2013|By Paul Richter and Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — Even though the U.S. Embassy's military attache was expelled from Venezuela shortly before the death of President Hugo Chavez was announced Tuesday, the country could still be headed for a change that would have infuriated the fiery populist: better relations with the United States.

For 14 years, Chavez sought to build a role as a regional leader by flamboyantly defying what he called the "Yankee empire." He cultivated ties with Iran, a leading U.S. adversary, and assembled a bloc of left-leaning Latin American countries to challenge Washington's political and economic dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

Though Chavez's immediate successors probably won't jettison his socialist domestic policy, those in position to take over don't appear to have the same hunger for regional leadership or the skill to take on such a role, say current and former U.S. officials and other analysts. That could make the relationship with Washington less rancorous, if not exactly warm.

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"Chavez had a map in his mind of how he wanted to pursue his revolutionary project around the world," said Stephen Johnson, a top Pentagon policymaker on Latin America during the George W. Bush administration. "It's hard to imagine that his successor is going to have the same determination or self-confidence in those areas."

On Tuesday, the first indication of the future was not particularly comforting. Nicolas Maduro, Chavez's vice president and designated heir, announced on national TV that American military attache David Delmonaco must leave the country within 24 hours for "proposing destabilizing plans" to members of Venezuela's armed forces. Maduro also implied that the U.S. was at fault for Chavez's illness and said he would set up a scientific commission to investigate. Later, a U.S. Air Force assistant attache was also expelled.

But over time, analysts say, Maduro's track record has not reflected the same fiery nature as that of Chavez.

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Though Maduro, as foreign minister, worked to separate Venezuela further from the United States, building stronger ties with Cuba, Russia and China, he doesn't have Chavez's forceful personality, analysts say.

He echoes Chavez's hard-line views about U.S. influence worldwide as well as other key points of Venezuela's foreign policy, but U.S. officials see him as a deal maker rather than an antagonist, and some have even praised his affability. Apparently with Chavez's blessing, Maduro recently showed signs of wanting to explore what might be gained by better relations with the United States: In November, he began talks with Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of State for Latin America.

That contact, which has continued between lower-level officials, reinforces analysts' view that Chavez's battle with cancer left Maduro and others in the elite trying to assess whether they would be better off neutralizing what they perceive as a threat from the United States.

"Chavez was the revolution, and without him they're probably feeling pretty vulnerable," said a diplomat from the region who asked to remain unidentified because of the sensitivity of the issue. "Their main concern is going to be, how do we hang on to power?"

Diosdado Cabello, president of the Venezuelan National Assembly and another contender for the presidency, has shown little sign that he aspires to an international role as Chavez did. There is also a chance — probably a small one — that the post-Chavez jockeying could lead to the ascent of the opposition leader Henrique Capriles, a regional governor who is considered a moderate and might try to improve ties with Washington.

The next leader's chief preoccupation will be trying to resuscitate Venezuela's economy, which is straining under huge debt, surging inflation, food shortages and a collapse of the oil industry, the country's most important revenue source.

A de-emphasis of the regime's international agenda would be a setback for the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, known by its Spanish acronym ALBA, a bloc of eight left-leaning Latin American and Caribbean countries that Chavez sought to lead as an alternative to trade efforts led by the United States, and which he helped prop up with billions of petrodollars. In addition to Venezuela, the members are Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

U.S. officials acknowledge that relations with Venezuela are at a low point, especially since each country rejected the other's ambassador in 2010.

Chavez and President Obama famously were photographed shaking hands and smiling broadly in Trinidad and Tobago in 2009 at the Summit of the Americas, a gathering of 34 democratically elected leaders in the hemisphere.

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