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07/08/2004:

"Post Chavez Venezuela Would Be US Ally:Opposition"

by Pascal FletcherReuters

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela will restore friendly ties with its main oil client, the United States, and scale back relations with Cuba if opponents of President Hugo Chavez win a referendum on his rule and elections, an opposition leader said on Thursday.

Alejandro Armas said the opposition, if elected to govern following a defeat for left-winger Chavez in the Aug. 15 recall vote, would reshape his foreign policy, which has distanced Venezuela from the United States.

"Our political relations with the United States cannot be at odds with our economic relations," Armas told Reuters.

The opposition's blueprint for a post-Chavez government will be formally presented on Friday. It calls for a foreign policy that "helps to restore confidence in Venezuela as a democratic nation and as a political and commercial partner."

Most opinion polls had shown Chavez losing the referendum, but some recent surveys say he is gaining ground.

Chavez, a populist first elected in 1998, portrays himself as an ideological foe of what he calls the "imperialist" U.S. government. He has snubbed Washington by forging alliances with anti-U.S. states, especially communist Cuba, and has called President Bush "a jerk."

Armas said Venezuela's cooperation with Cuban President Fidel Castro would be scaled back to dismantle what he said was "a kind of sinister alliance."

Despite Chavez's almost daily verbal attacks on Bush, Venezuela remains one of the top suppliers of oil to the U.S. market, shipping about 14 percent of its needs.

Armas said the contradiction between Chavez's "absurd confrontation" with Washington and Venezuela's role as a strategic U.S. energy supplier should be resolved.

He also called for improved relations with Andean neighbor Colombia, Venezuela's second-biggest trade partner.

Under Chavez, ties have been strained by accusations from Bogota that he sympathizes with, and even supports, Colombian Marxist guerrillas viewed as "terrorists" by Washington. Chavez denies the allegations.

COOLER CUBA TIES

The opposition plan foresees "clear and active opposition against terrorism, drug-smuggling, guerrillas, arms-trafficking and transnational organized crime."

Armas said the Cuban presence in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter "went far beyond what is reasonable and acceptable in diplomacy" and would have to be corrected.

In a relationship criticized by Washington, Chavez has turned his country into Cuba's most important ally and trade partner, shipping cheap oil to Havana and bringing more than 10,000 Cuban doctors, teachers and other advisers to work in Venezuela.

Critics of Chavez have accused him of "giving away" Venezuelan oil to Cuba and trying to install a replica of the island's communist system. Chavez says he is not a communist and hails the relationship with Cuba as a model of cooperation.

The opposition plan for government will also recommend a greater opening of Venezuela's economy to foreign investment, especially in the strategic oil sector.

A way we know the situation is out of control:that when the Venezuelan opposition speaks of being a US ally, it is the same as admitting that they are corrupt, co-opted, compromised, and corporate