By Nora Boustany

Can diplomacy set things right between Venezuela and the United States? U.S. officials, members of Congress and diplomats who know him say Ambassador
Ignacio Arcaya seems to have born for the job. From a family of three generations of ambassadors, Arcaya, 61, has the challenge of explaining the phenomenon of
President Hugo Chavez to Americans and of making Chavez aware of how his unorthodox style and policies have riled Washington.

"It is clear to me he has the attention of President Chavez, going back to his days as minister of interior. It is good to have an ambassador here with that access," said
Peter F. Romero, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.

"I cannot think of an individual better suited for explaining both the priorities and personality of Chavez," said Rep. William D. Delahunt (D-Mass.). "I believe Arcaya
has the skill and talent to sit down with members of the administration and provide a context for issues we can agree on or bring to resolution."

Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a public policy organization, said Arcaya told him that Venezuela was well aware of its reputation in
Washington. "You are one of our targets," Arcaya said of Hakim's organization, adding: "We know we have an image problem."

Chavez, a former army colonel who led a failed coup in 1992 and was elected president in 1999, has frequently appeared to go out of his way to poke the United
States in the eye. Chavez has led Venezuela, the foremost exporter of oil to the United States, on a course that many in Washington perceive as provocative. Among
several gestures that have exacerbated tensions, Chavez has flown to Iraq to personally invitePresident Saddam Hussein to an OPEC meeting in a bid to stabilize
prices. He has also repeatedly expressed a fondness for Cuba's Fidel Castro.

But Arcaya may be just the man to smooth over the rough edges. "He is very much a person who is goal-oriented," said Hakim, recalling how the ambassador got a
senior minister to respond to an invitation here in record time.

And that is not the only thing Arcaya can finagle. When Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-N.C.) invited Chavez to visit Hickory, N.C., after the Summit of the Americas in
Quebec last month, Arcaya called the representative to ask: "What about me?" Arcaya went along and took the measure of Ballenger on the golf course.

"He is cosmopolitan, a professional diplomat and easily the best among those I have met," said a senior U.S. official who knew Arcaya in Venezuela. "He knows the
United States, understands it and knows how to interpret U.S. realities and idiosyncrasies."

Imagine a combination of Salvador Dali and Charlie Chaplin in a compact and graceful mold. The tailored double-breasted suit, polka-dot pochette and silk tie with
tiny polo players mask Arcaya's athletic side. A flash of white hair swept back and a mustache he strokes for effect give him an almost retro look. A photo gallery of
Arcaya, next to an assortment of world leaders or playing golf, on horseback, scuba diving, fencing or riding a motorcycle reflects the two personas: diplomat and
sportsman.

His diplomatic career has taken him to Geneva, Paris, Australia, Chile, Britain, Argentina and the United Nations in New York, where he was ambassador after
serving as minister of the interior and justice in 1999.

"Did you know I'm a Marxist?" he asks. "I'm a great fan of the Marx Brothers." Asked if he had a hand in Venezuela's vote in favor of the United States in its failed
bid to stay on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, he responds, "Your question is not indiscreet."

"When I was a radical student in the '60s, I would have laughed my head off at the prospect of what I ended up doing," he said matter-of-factly. He moves back and
forth effortlessly among French, Italian, Portuguese, English and Spanish.

Arcaya calls himself a "progressive conservative." He comes from a conservative, traditional family but confesses he has "social anxieties." Fewer countries "have ever
mismanaged so phenomenally an economy as Venezuela had in the last half-century," Arcaya observed. Upon returning home in 1999, he found 80 percent of the
population living in poverty, despite Venezuela's oil wealth.

He told American visitors and then-U.S. Ambassador John Maisto how appalled he was at the inhumane conditions in Venezuelan jails. "It gave me nightmares. I did
my best, which probably was not good enough," he said. "President Chavez recognizes the conditions. The system itself is a violation of human rights. We still have to
work very hard."

Thus Arcaya's willingness to embrace a man like Chavez, who was born at the bottom of the social totem pole and rose as an army officer, then stormed into politics
vowing to right past wrongs. "When Arcaya was young, he was rebellious, and he and others realize the opportunity to have a new day in Venezuela is now,"
Ballenger said.

"There is a new Venezuela being born," Arcaya said. "It will take time . . . and go through ups and downs. There will be difficulties and mistakes, but in the long run it
will be good."

                                               © 2001