Word: venezuela
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...scene was rich with possibility. In the front row of the Caracas theater where Venezuela's newly elected President Carlos Andres Perez would be inaugurated sat U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle, neophyte diplomat, basher of Communism and self-described "cheerleader" for democracy. A mere six seats to Quayle's right sat Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the bearded antithesis of everything Quayle stands for. Was a confrontation reminiscent of Richard Nixon's 1959 Moscow "kitchen debate" with Nikita Khrushchev in the offing...
Quayle might be excused for feeling a bit frustrated by the focus on his looks. Well aware of his image as a lightweight, he carefully prepped for his first solo mission as a diplomat, a three-day, largely ceremonial trip to Venezuela and El Salvador. Still, the Vice President's handlers were nervous about a possible blunder. When the chartered plane that was to carry nearly 50 reporters along on the trip was abruptly canceled, there were suspicions that the idea was to limit press coverage...
...Inauguration neared, Quayle evidently felt more confident. At the start of last week, he agreed to a round of TV, newspaper and magazine interviews. He was assigned by Bush to get his first taste of diplomacy on a visit to Venezuela and two to four other Latin American nations only a couple of weeks after being sworn in. Though Quayle played the traditional role of Just Barely Visible Man through most of the Inaugural ceremonies, he delivered what some advisers called his own Inaugural Address at the concluding gala Saturday night. Quayle said he had come to appreciate Winston Churchill...
...less political than Allende's last two novels, which decry the military dictatorship in the author's native land, Eva Luna protests abuses of power and corruption in a South American nation which one takes to be Venezuela. But her political commentary takes a different, more subtle tack here...
Allende's novel focuses on the upward mobility of those from relatively low classes in Venezuela to become respected members of the country's elite. It also focuses on the corruption rampant within the military regimes and even the ensuing democracy that replaces it--to little effect...