New move to soothe US-Venezuelan relations

The Reverend Jesse Jackson has urged the US government to strongly condemn a televised call to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying Washington needs to cool down the rhetoric against a country that is a key oil supplier.

Chavez said yesterday after meeting Jackson that he is willing to cooperate with the US against drug trafficking as long as its agents are not involved in spying, and that Venezuela plans to begin providing oil directly to poor US communities.

The American civil rights leader said he hoped the talks would help ease tensions aggravated last week by conservative religious broadcaster Pat Robertson’s suggestion that Chavez ought to be killed.

“We must make it clear that talk of isolating Venezuela, talk of assassinating its leader, this is unacceptable, and it must be denounced roundly by our president and by our secretary of state,” Jackson said.

Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro who frequently criticises what he calls US domination of Latin America, has said his government could ask the United States to extradite Robertson to Venezuela.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday in Washington that Venezuela does not appear to have a sound legal basis for seeking his extradition.

Robertson called for Chavez’s assassination on his TV show ”The 700 Club” a week ago, saying the US should “take him out” because the Venezuelan leader poses a danger to the region.

Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition of America and a supporter of Bush’s re-election bid, later apologised.

Chavez said it’s important to note that minutes before ”that gentlemen made his hair-raising call for the US government to kill me,” Robertson’s program showed a segment including comments by “some terrorists,” including a leader in a short-lived 2002 coup “who tried to kill me that day.”

He said Venezuela hopes the US will extradite two others who were interviewed on charges of involvement in bombings that rocked the Spanish Embassy and Colombian Consulate in Caracas in 2003, injuring four.

Chavez apparently was referring to two ex-National Guard officers who requested asylum in Miami last year and are being held by US authorities.

Chavez has regularly accused the US government of plotting to overthrow him and has said it backed the 2002 coup.

US officials have strongly denied it, even as they have made clear they are concerned about his ties with Castro and what opponents call the Venezuelan leader’s authoritarian tendencies.

Chavez said he had “constructive” relations with former US President Bill Clinton, and he hoped to have them again with the US, the top buyer of Venezuelan oil. He offered Venezuelan aid to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“We never lose hope that we’ll regain a good tone with Mr. Bush’s government,” Chavez said. “Every day, we provide 1.5 million barrels to the US.”

The leftist former army officer says he is leading Venezuela toward socialism and has sought to line up new markets for Venezuelan oil, extending preferential deals to countries from China to Jamaica.