[NYTr] Chavez Opponent Welcomed for a Chat with US Govt Official

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Reuters - October 13, 2007
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2007-10-12T192242Z_01_N12241933_RTRUKOC_0_US-VENEZUELA-USA.xml

Venezuela opposition leader meets with U.S. govt.

WASHINGTON - Venezuela's main opposition politician on Friday met with
the U.S. State Department's top diplomat for Latin America to express
concern about President Hugo Chavez's constitutional reform campaign.

The leftist Chavez wants to drop the two-term limit on presidential
election as part of a constitutional overhaul to create a socialist
state for the OPEC nation, a move opposition leaders call an effort for
him to stay in office indefinitely.

Manuel Rosales, who lost a presidential bid to Chavez last year, met
with Thomas Shannon, the U.S. diplomat in charge of relations with
Latin America, to warn of the dangers to democracy that such reform
would pose, a spokesman for Rosales said.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Shannon "had a good
discussion with (Rosales) about the general political situation in the
country."

He said Shannon had met Venezuela's foreign minister last month on the
sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York and told him that
Washington wishes to have a good relationship with Caracas.

Chavez, a self-styled revolutionary who has boosted his global
influence by lavishly spending the OPEC nation's oil wealth, is a close
ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro and harshly critical of the United States.

He frequently calls the nation's opposition leaders lackeys of United
States "imperialism" who receive marching orders from Washington.

State Department leaders often describe Chavez as an authoritarian
menace and a danger to regional democracy.

Venezuela's fractured opposition has failed to build a serious
challenge to his movement at the ballot box, and pollsters expected
Chavez to win a referendum scheduled for December to approve the
constitutional reform package.

(Additional reporting by Sue Pleming in Washington)