Name that mutual interest!!!
The AP reports that State Department press officer Eric Watnik has a wry sense of humor when it comes to Venezuela: The State Department, long at odds with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, greeted the populist leader’s landslide re-election victory by holding out the possibility of a more cooperative relationship with his government. “We look forward ...
The AP reports that State Department press officer Eric Watnik has a wry sense of humor when it comes to Venezuela: The State Department, long at odds with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, greeted the populist leader's landslide re-election victory by holding out the possibility of a more cooperative relationship with his government. "We look forward to having the opportunity to work with the Venezuelan government on issues of mutual interest," State Department press officer Eric Watnik said Monday. Chavez, meanwhile, saw his victory as a setback for the United States. "It's another defeat for the devil, who tries to dominate the world," Chavez told the crowd of supporters in Caracas. "Down with imperialism. We need a new world." Watnik's brief comments did not offer congratulations to Chavez nor did it make direct reference to him or what it regards as the increasingly authoritarian course he is pursuing.... On Friday, two days before the election, National Director of Intelligence John Negroponte outlined U.S. concerns about Chavez in a wide-ranging speech at Harvard University. He said Chavez's "meddling in the domestic affairs of other states in the region ? granting Colombia's FARC insurgents safe haven and other material support, for example ? already has made him a divisive force." He criticized Venezuela's attitude toward drug trafficking as "permissive," an allegation Venezuelan officials have denied. Venezuela's growing ties to Iran and other states, such as North Korea, Syria, and Belarus, "clearly demonstrate a desire to build an anti-U.S. coalition that extends well beyond Latin America," Negroponte said. (emphasis added) Readers are strongly encouraged to name issues in which Hugo Chavez and George W. Bush would share a mutual interest.
The AP reports that State Department press officer Eric Watnik has a wry sense of humor when it comes to Venezuela:
The State Department, long at odds with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, greeted the populist leader’s landslide re-election victory by holding out the possibility of a more cooperative relationship with his government. “We look forward to having the opportunity to work with the Venezuelan government on issues of mutual interest,” State Department press officer Eric Watnik said Monday. Chavez, meanwhile, saw his victory as a setback for the United States. “It’s another defeat for the devil, who tries to dominate the world,” Chavez told the crowd of supporters in Caracas. “Down with imperialism. We need a new world.” Watnik’s brief comments did not offer congratulations to Chavez nor did it make direct reference to him or what it regards as the increasingly authoritarian course he is pursuing…. On Friday, two days before the election, National Director of Intelligence John Negroponte outlined U.S. concerns about Chavez in a wide-ranging speech at Harvard University. He said Chavez’s “meddling in the domestic affairs of other states in the region ? granting Colombia’s FARC insurgents safe haven and other material support, for example ? already has made him a divisive force.” He criticized Venezuela’s attitude toward drug trafficking as “permissive,” an allegation Venezuelan officials have denied. Venezuela’s growing ties to Iran and other states, such as North Korea, Syria, and Belarus, “clearly demonstrate a desire to build an anti-U.S. coalition that extends well beyond Latin America,” Negroponte said. (emphasis added)
Readers are strongly encouraged to name issues in which Hugo Chavez and George W. Bush would share a mutual interest.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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