http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/13169145.htm

Posted on Tue, Nov. 15, 2005


LATIN AMERICA
Venezuela, Mexico rift widens in war of words
The Bush administration decided to stay on the sidelines in the diplomatic rift between Venezuela and Mexico despite the harsh words Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has also lobbed at the United States.
BY PHIL GUNSON
Special to The Herald

made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez

Venezuela and Mexico recalled their respective ambassadors Monday as President Hugo Chávez rejected a demand that he apologize for insulting his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox.

The Mexican government also informed the Venezuelan ambassador that his diplomatic credentials were being yanked and that he would not be welcomed back in Mexico as ambassador.

The mutual recalls amounted to the sixth time that Chávez, a sharp-tongued leftist populist, has clashed with neighbors to the point of calling home ambassadors -- moves that reflect strong disagreements but stop short of breaking diplomatic relations.

The Bush administration, which has accused Chávez of trying to destabilize the region, declined comment even though U.S. officials often complain that many Latin American leaders see Chávez as a danger yet refuse to go public with their fears.

''This issue is something between Mexico and Venezuela,'' said Adam Ereli, a State Department spokesman. ``It's not something that you need to drag the United States in.''

THE DISPUTE UNFOLDS

Chávez's dispute with Fox began after the Summit of the Americas earlier this month in Argentina, at which the two presidents sparred over the U.S.-backed proposal for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

Fox, a conservative who backs the FTAA, accused Chávez, who vowed to ''bury'' the FTAA, of ''extremes of intolerance.'' Chávez then called Fox ''a puppy of the [U.S.] empire,'' and the Mexican leader shot back with a thinly veiled blast at Chávez's populism: ``How they deceive, and how they lose, those leaders who go against the current of world progress.''

Foreign Ministers AlÃÂ* RodrÃÂ*guez of Venezuela and Luis Ernesto Derbez of Mexico agreed later to call off the name-calling, but Chávez returned to the attack Sunday, warning Fox, ``Don't mess with me, sir, because you'll get pricked.''

On Monday, Fox told reporters: ''We cannot accept things that offend the dignity of the Mexican people.'' And his government demanded an apology from the Venezuelan government by midnight.

Without waiting for the deadline, RodrÃÂ*guez on Monday said the row was, ''entirely President Fox's responsibility'' and announced he was recalling his ambassador in Mexico City. Mexico announced the same move minutes later.

Elsa Cardozo, a professor of international politics at Caracas' Metropolitan University, said she was surprised at Chávez's many diplomatic embroilments since he was first elected in 1998.

The disputes are due to Chávez's ''frankly aggressive policy to challenge any alternative leadership in the region,'' she told The Herald.

A HISTORY OF DISPUTES

In November of 2000, Colombian President Andrés Pastrana called home his ambassador in Caracas ''for consultations'' after two representatives of Colombia's FARC leftist guerrillas were invited to address a forum in Caracas. The ambassador returned to the post later.

Both nations also recalled their ambassadors in January of this year after FARC leader Rodrigo Granda was kidnapped in Caracas by Venezuelan security forces allegedly acting on their own and handed over to Colombian police.

In June of 2001, Chávez called home his ambassador to Peru after accusing Lima authorities of lying about their attempts to arrest fugitive spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos, who had been been captured while hiding in Caracas.

And in 2004, Venezuela's ambassador in Panama was recalled after President Mireya Moscoso pardoned four jailed Cuban exiles, including LuÃÂ*s Posada Carriles, wanted by Caracas for the 1976 mid-air bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. The envoys to Lima and Panama were sent back after changes of governments there.

Chile recalled its ambassador to Caracas in 2003 after Chávez expressed public support for Bolivia in a long-standing and bitter territorial dispute between the two countries over Pacific coastline that goes back to the late 1880s.

Venezuela's then-foreign minister, Roy Chadderton, said Chávez had merely used ''symbolic language'' when he spoke of his dream of ''bathing on a Bolivian beach.'' But the Chileans were not amused.

The Bush administration, whose leaders Chávez insults on an almost daily basis, and sometimes in extremely crude language, has largely refrained from taking diplomatic measures against him. However, in 2001, U.S. Ambassador Donna Hrinak was briefly recalled for consultations after Chávez criticized the U.S. attack on Afghanistan as ``fighting terror with terror.''

Venezuela at times also has resorted to more direct forms of pressure.

In 2003, it cut oil supplies to the Dominican Republic over allegations that an anti-Chávez plot was being hatched in Santo Domingo. Hints of similar action against Costa Rica were also made.