U.S. backs 'group of friends' for Venezuela
10 Jan 2003 18:40 www.alertnet.org
By Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The United States supports forming a "group of friends" of Venezuela of key nations in the region to try to break an impasse between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and opposition groups who have crippled Venezuelan oil exports with a strike, a U.S. official said on Friday.
Washington hoped the idea could support Organization of American States Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria's efforts to end the crisis, which pits the leftist president against opposition groups who wish to oust him, the official said.
The United States backed the idea in part because Gaviria's efforts so far to end the 40-day-old strike that has throttled oil exports by the world's fifth-largest petroleum exporter have not succeeded and it hoped that a gesture by other nations in the region might nudge both sides to compromise.
The strikers want Chavez, accused by his foes of autocratic rule, to resign and hold early elections, something he has so far refused to do.
"Are we trying to find a way to break the impasse -- absolutely. We want to try to find a way to end the political crisis," said the U.S. official, who asked not to be named, stressing the U.S. view that there needs to be an "electoral solution" allowing Venezuelans to express their views.
"The notion of a group of friends is one among a number of ideas to inject new energy and new thinking into the process, but most importantly if both Chavez and the opposition are exposed to a unified international view that they both need to compromise, there's increased pressure," he added.
"In other words, (so) that Chavez doesn't think he's got support from friendly governments to hold the line and (so) that the opposition doesn't think it has support from groups in the hemisphere that it can continue the strike indefinitely," the official said.
However, the U.S. official stressed that the United States wanted the "group of friends" idea to support Gaviria's efforts, not to act in competition with them.
"Gaviria ... is the key player there. All we want to do is to support his efforts," the official said, saying Washington had held off from endorsing the idea until it became clear to U.S. officials that Gaviria supported it.
The U.S. official said the loss of Venezuela oil exports as a result of the strike was one factor, but not the dominant factor, in the United States decision to back the idea of a group of friends. Prior to the strike, the United States imported about 13 percent of its oil from Venezuela.
"I wouldn't say that it (oil) weighed disproportionately," the official said.
The Washington Post, which first reported that the United States favored the "group of friends" idea, said an initiative was expected to be rolled out within the next week.
A U.S. official said that any initiative would complement Gaviria's efforts.
"We remain supportive of Gaviria and the OAS effort and if something's appropriately structured that would help that, we would support it," he said. "I wouldn't call it a major new initiative but it is an effort to break the impasse. We want to get regional leaders focused on helping to do that."
Washington lost credibility in Venezuela when it appeared to welcome a coup last year that briefly ousted Chavez.
But it hopes the plan will head off an initiative by left-leaning Brazil to form its own "group of friendly nations" to resolve the crisis that the United States believes would be counterproductive, the Washington Post reported.
A U.S. official said Washington did not see the group of friends idea as a way of injecting itself into the Venezuelan situation, acknowledging Latin American sensitivities about the history of U.S. influence in the region.
But he said the United States was likely to get blamed if things went badly, so it had might as well do what it could.
"If things go badly, the United States (will) be blamed, so we might as well be engaged in trying to make sure that things go well," the official said.