THE HILL: US Officials Meet with Key Anti-Chavez Leaders

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"Leading The News
U.S. officials meet with key anti-Chavez leaders
By Bridget Johnson
Posted: 07/22/09 05:55 PM
The State Department confirmed Wednesday that U.S. officials met with key Venezuelan opposition leaders this week in Washington.

Deputy Spokesman Robert Wood said that representatives from the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States, led by Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Christopher McMullen, met with Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma and Govs. Pablo Pérez of Zulia and Cesar Pérez Vivas of Táchira on Tuesday.

Ledezma's 2008 victory in the Caracas mayor's race was an upset to the administration of President Hugo Chavez. It was followed by a political reorganization that stripped most of the authority from the Caracas mayor and shifted the budget and political decisions to a district established by the pro-Chavez National Assembly and staffed by a Chavez appointee.

Chavez opponents Perez and Perez Vivas also won their governorships in 2008. Chavez has since accused Perez Vivas of conspiring with right-wing paramilitary groups, and Perez has been on a collision course with Chavez over the seizure of oil-service companies in the western part of the country.

All three men participated in a Council of the Americas event in Washington on Monday.

A spokeswoman for Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), the most vociferous Chavez opponent in the House, told The Hill that Mack "was scheduled to meet with them earlier this week, but due to a scheduling conflict, they were not able to make the meeting."

The State Department meeting could amplify tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela, particularly as Chavez has alleged conspiracies between Washington agencies and the overthrow of Chavez ally President Manuel Zelaya in Honduras.

Last Thursday, Chavez specifically blamed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's department while again taking care to avoid blaming President Obama.

"This coup was perpetrated by the U.S. Department of State," Chavez said on a visit to Bolivia. "I have no doubt at all. Those Honduras militaries could not take a step without the approval of the militaries deployed in the U.S. base which is in Honduras and without the consent of the Department of State.

"The empire is the empire, and the CIA is the CIA and all the mechanisms of the Department of State," Chavez continued. "There is not doubt about it. The United States has dipped its fingers in all the coups in this hemisphere for 200 years. Obama is the one who should answer to it, not me."

The U.S. and Venezuela returned respective ambassadors to their posts just days before the overthrow. The Obama administration condemned the overthrow and demanded that Zelaya be returned to power, but the standoff in Honduras has added a new roadblock to a U.S.-Venezuela relationship that seems to chill again as rapidly as it begins to thaw.

On Tuesday, Chavez said that a U.S.-Colombia pact to fight drug trafficking was "an aggression against Venezuela." A Government Accountability Office report published Monday said drug trafficking through Venezuela is increasing, adding that the "permissive atmosphere" in the country would threaten security gains made in Colombia.
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http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/u.s.-officials-meet-with-key-anti-chavez-leaders-2009-07-22.html