Word: vez
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Washington started off on the wrong foot with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shortly after he took office in 1999. Embarking on his first international tour as head of state, Chávez took a call from a high-ranking Clinton Administration official, who told the Venezuelan leader that it would be better for his country's relations with the U.S. if he avoided visiting Fidel Castro in Cuba. Chávez, a left-wing nationalist, had yet to develop his gushing friendship with Castro, but like other leaders all over Latin America - even those who dislike the Cuban leader...
...Since then, of course, U.S.-Venezuela relations have plummeted farther than a Lake Maracaibo oil drill. Both sides share the blame. But the 1999 phone call bears significance. If anything, Chávez has lately supplanted Castro as Washington's priority regional pariah, yet he celebrated a decade in power this month by winning a democratic referendum that scraps presidential term limits, allowing him to run for re-election for as long as he chooses to. (See pictures of people around the world watching Barack Obama's Inauguration...
...vez isn't going anywhere, just as Castro didn't despite almost five decades of U.S. efforts to isolate him. That fact alone should prompt President Obama to break with the failed policies of his predecessors and meet with Chávez ahead of April's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad. (First item: reinstating each other's ambassadors, who were expelled from Washington and Caracas last year after Chávez accused the U.S. envoy of conspiring against him.) Talking to Chávez is not a popular idea in Washington, given the Venezuelan leader's strident anti...
...thing, it's a good idea for the U.S. to have a better rapport with one of its major oil suppliers. Chávez, who said last weekend he's willing to meet with Obama, likewise seems to realize that his favorite Yanqui enemy, George W. Bush, is gone, and that a new relationship might be possible with his major oil customer. And as the Castro example demonstrates, it's hard to isolate a Latin American head of state when the rest of Latin America doesn't sign on - and most nations in the region are not willing to freeze...
...Read a recent TIME magazine story on Chávez...