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April 14,
2002U.S. Offers Tough Message to Venezuela's ChavezBy REUTERSFiled at 12:28 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, which did not condemn the military coup that ousted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, greeted his return on Sunday with a stern message that his policies were not working and he should be more responsive to his people. ``I hope Hugo Chavez takes the message that his people sent him that his own policies are not working for the Venezuelan people,'' U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' news program. Chavez returned to lead the world's fourth-largest oil-exporting nation on Sunday, after a government set up following Friday's military coup collapsed in the face of massive protests and a rebellion by troops loyal to Chavez. ``We do hope that Chavez recognizes that the whole world is watching and that he takes advantage of this opportunity to right his own ship which has been moving, frankly, in the wrong direction for quite a long time,'' Rice said. Chavez, a left-wing former paratrooper, had irritated the United States by strengthening Venezuela's ties with states openly hostile to Washington, such as Fidel Castro's communist Cuba, Iraq and Iran. He infuriated President Bush's government late last year by criticizing the U.S.-led anti-terrorism war in Afghanistan, which he said was killing innocent civilians. This led to a cooling of relations with Washington, although Chavez insisted Venezuela wanted to maintain friendly ties and would stay a major oil supplier to the United States. Venezuela supplies the United States with 1.5 million barrels of oil a day and has the largest reserves outside the Middle East. On Sunday, an official at the State Department said the U.S. was monitoring the situation closely. ``We continue to call on all elements to avoid violence and seek ways to engage peacefully to resolve this crisis,'' the State Department said in a statement. ``Those in authority bear particular responsibility to maintain order and the conditions necessary for Venezuelans to work together to restore fully the essential elements of democracy.'' A COUP AND A COMEBACK On Friday, Venezuelan military officers announced Chavez's resignation, blaming him for the deaths of at least 11 people in a protest broken up by violence. Pedro Carmona, head of Venezuela's leading business association Fedecamaras, was named to head the government until new elections could be scheduled. On Friday, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer also said that the tough action by Chavez to put down the protest had instead brought down the president. ``Details are still unclear, but what we do know is that the actions encouraged by the Chavez government provoked a crisis. According to the best information we have, the government suppressed what was a peaceful demonstration of the people,'' Fleischer said. U.S. officials insisted, however, that they did not know in advance of the chain of events that led to Chavez's departure And they said they did not consider his ouster a coup, even though military leaders installed a new government. This was in contrast to the Latin American leaders from the 19-member Rio Group, who condemned what they called the interruption of constitutional order, called for clean democratic elections and said it was too early to decide if they could recognize the new interim government as legitimate. Rice, while offering to work with the Organization of American States, or OAS, and other countries in the region to help move Venezuela through this crisis, warned on Sunday that Chavez must respect constitutional processes. ``This is no time for a witch hunt this is time for national reconciliation in Venezuela and we are working with our partners in the OAS and in the region to try and help Venezuela through this very difficult time,'' she said. | ||||||
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