Administration Expresses Guarded Optimism About Interim Regime, Calls for Quick Elections

By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
 

The Bush administration yesterday blamed former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez for the events that led to his forced
resignation and arrest, calling his toppling by the nation's military a "change of government" rather than a coup. Officials said
Chavez's departure was the will of Venezuela's people.

After years of frustration with Chavez and his leftist agenda, administration officials spoke with guarded optimism of future
relations with an interim government led by Pedro Carmona, the head of Venezuela's chamber of commerce, including
improved cooperation against terrorism and potential increases in oil imports.

Officials offered a barely veiled sense of satisfaction at the demise of Chavez, whose anti-American rhetoric, political alliances
with pariah states and authoritarian ways drove the administration and its Latin American allies to distraction.

President Bush last month showed the administration's distaste for Chavez by meeting in Peru with the leaders of four of
Venezuela's Andean neighbors and pointedly denying him an invitation. Although Chavez appealed personally to neighboring
leaders to intervene on his behalf, the administration said the session primarily concerned trade preferences that did not include
Venezuela.

"Obviously, nobody's shedding tears up here," said Steve Johnson, a Latin American affairs analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

At the same time, the administration emphasized that it wants Venezuela's temporary government to hold national elections,
preferably by the end of the year. Officials noted that the leadership will face difficulties in restarting the country's economy and
building political credibility. One said, "There are still a lot of details unclear."

An early sign of change was the pledge from a director of Venezuela's giant state-owned oil company that the firm would halt
exports to Cuba, where Cuban President Fidel Castro became one of Chavez's closest allies and friends. Cuban foreign
minister Felipe Perez Roque denounced the Caracas events as a "coup" and said Chavez remains Venezuela's constitutional
president.

Human Rights Watch said it was "deeply concerned" that the military ousted Chavez -- whose popular support had fallen
dramatically despite a 1998 landslide victory -- outside the democratic process. The presidents of 19 Western Hemisphere
countries, meeting in Costa Rica, issued a statement that said, "We condemn the interruption of constitutional order" and called
for "clear and transparent elections."

The presidents, who have mixed feelings about Chavez's forced resignation, invoked the Inter-American Democratic Charter,
adopted in September by the Organization of American States. The charter requires specific actions by all 34 members when
an "interruption" occurs. OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria will convene a meeting today of ambassadors and likely will
report to a special meeting of OAS foreign ministers after a trip to Caracas.

The White House, which just yesterday proclaimed Pan American Day and described "democracy as the birthright of every
person in the Americas," said the ouster of Chavez was prompted by peaceful protests and justified by the Venezuelan leader's
own actions.

Chavez lost his job "as a result of the message of the Venezuelan people," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, who
asserted a series of human rights violations by the Chavez government. "We know that the action encouraged by the Chavez
government provoked the crisis."

Fleischer said the Chavez government tried to suppress peaceful demonstrations, ordered its supporters to fire on unarmed
protesters and blocked media broadcasts of the events. After the military and police refused to fight further, Chavez dismissed
his vice president and cabinet.

Chavez had been an annoyance to Washington long before his overthrow. A paratrooper who led a failed coup attempt in
1992, he won election as a leftist in 1998, styling himself as the populist defender of the Venezuelan people. He made a show
of criticizing the U.S. government, while shipping enough oil northward to make the United States his country's best customer.

U.S. officials largely tolerated Chavez's words, while watching his methods and deeds ever more closely.

Intelligence reports suggested that Chavez was supporting anti-government opposition groups in neighboring countries. In
October, the State Department recalled Ambassador Donna Hrinak for "consultations" after Chavez criticized the U.S. war in
Afghanistan as "fighting terror with terror" and met in Tripoli with Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell testified to Congress in February that Chavez visits "some of the strangest countries,"
referring to the Venezuelan's visits to Iran, Iraq and Cuba -- all on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. Chavez
supporters noted that Libya, Iran and Iraq are members with Venezuela of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries,
in which Chavez played a leading role.

"In short order, the expectations are going to be high that this transition government can deliver something that Chavez was
unable to do," said Heritage's Johnson. "If they hold elections and elect a new government, that government is going to be
asked to do things that previous governments have been unable to do in Venezuela's 20-year decline."

Staff writer Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.

                                 © 2002