By Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON, Mar 8 2007 (IPS)

A report released Thursday by the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue charges that United States’ policy in dealing with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has shown little skill or consistency as Chavez moves to challenge Washington’s agenda in Latin America.

The report, “Hugo Chavez: A Test for U.S. Policy,” proposes a “more coherent approach” for Washington’s relationship with Venezuela as well as its role in the Latin America.

Michael Shifter, the vice president for policy at the Inter-American Dialogue and author of the report, says that the United States’ image in Venezuela and Latin America has recently taken a beating, but that a new strategy for U.S. involvement in the region could improve relations with Latin America as well as more effectively secure U.S. regional interests.

Most importantly, the U.S. should take Chavez’s talk and actions seriously. With Chavez’s influence in the region increasing and U.S. influence decreasing, it is crucial to engage with Chavez despite his pursuit of an agenda hostile to Washington.

“That is a very enlightened decision, if he’s calling for negotiations with Chavez,” said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Studies, in an interview with IPS.

However, “It is disappointing that the organisation (Inter-American Dialogue) with the greatest financial resources has a formula for calling for negotiations with Venezuela but not behaving in an evenhanded manner when dealing with specific issues,” he went on to say.

Shifter admits that the current dialogue with Venezuela is unsatisfactory and that, “…when the United States avoids dealing with Chavez, disruptions in bilateral and hemispheric relations tend to accumulate.”

In confronting disagreements with Chavez, the U.S. should only support democratic and constitutional challenges to Chavez and abandon Cold War era rhetoric and policies calling for a “united front” among friendly Latin American allies and destabilisation through covert action, says the report.

Although Shifter argues for a hands-off policy on meddling in regional affairs, he does say that the U.S. should closely track the actions of the Venezuelan government and call attention to any violations of democratic norms and practices through multilateral channels.

In particular Chavez’s increasing censorship of the media should be of growing concern – just last year Chavez refused to renew the license of Radio Caracas TV, the oldest radio station in Venezuela, says the report.

Washington’s should propose a positive agenda for addressing the redistributive interests reflected in Chavez’s success in Venezuela. Only by offering a substantive agenda to its natural allies in Latin America can the U.S. remain a regional actor.

Shifter proposes that Washington’s priorities should go beyond the typical trade concerns of the Washington Consensus – a free trade-friendly package of policies promoted by the U.S. government through the World Bank – and attempt to address the acute social problems and concerns facing Latin America.

Not addressing these issues will give Chavez more ammunition for his accusations of the United States as imperialistic and indifferent to the suffering of lower class Venezuelans.

In its relations with Chavez, the U.S. should avoid the tit-for-tat exchanges which have characterised the recent U.S.-Venezuelan relationship, says the Inter-American Dialogue’s report.

Instead, the U.S. should use restraint in denouncing Chavez and avoid alienating potential Latin American allies by bolstering Chavez as a lone voice speaking out against U.S. bilateral interests.

Shifter also recommends the U.S. State Department refrain from demanding its Latin American allies take sides against Venezuela. “The Last thing Latin American governments want is to take sides (with the Bush administration against Chavez),” he said at a roundtable discussion at the release of the report.

The report points to the U.S.’s refusal to answer Chavez’s harsh speech at the United Nations as an example of responsible and subdued restraint when faced with “Chavez’s bait.”

Shifter concludes that efforts to challenge Chavez’s policies should be implemented by backing civil society organisations, “diplomatic levers” to respond to actions taken by the Chavez government, reducing U.S. dependency on Venezuelan oil, and seeking new channels of communication with Venezuelan officials.

The U.S. State Department’s human rights report, released two days ago, called the December reelection of Chavez “generally free and fair,” but said it was concerned by “politicisation of the judiciary, harassment of the media, and harassment of the political opposition.”

Bush himself left Thursday for a six-day tour of the region, with stops in Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico – but not Venezuela.

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