United States ends Venezuela's efforts to build a positive relationship

Editor's comment: Once again, President Maduro and his administration have demonstrated their commitment to defend Venezuela's sovereignty and independence from US-led imperialism and neo-colonialism. The BBC can throw in their cheap reference to Maduro as "Mr Chavez's anointed successor" and attempt to blame Venezuela for this decision. Truth told, it's the US who responded to Maduro's gesture "to build a relationship based on the principles of mutual respect and no interference in internal affairs" by nominating Samantha Power as the next US envoy to the United Nations. Samantha Power's words show that John Kerry's message to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua supporting an "ongoing, continuing dialogue [to] establish a more constructive and positive relationship" were disingenuous at best. Moreover, this news article turns the WSWS article republished on Axis of Logic below this one - on its head.

- Les Blough, Editor
Axis of Logic

July 20, 2013
BBC
Venezuela 'ends' bid to restore full US ties

Venezuela's foreign ministry said Samantha Power's opinions were 'disrespectful'

Venezuela says it has "ended" steps towards restoring diplomatic ties with the US, after comments by the woman nominated as the next envoy to the UN.

Samantha Power said this week she would seek to combat what she called the "crackdown on civil society" in countries including Venezuela.

She was speaking at a US Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

The remarks prompted an angry response from Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.

"The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela hereby ends the process... of finally normalising our diplomatic relations," said Venezuela's foreign ministry in a statement.

It objected to Ms Power's "interventionist agenda", noting that her "disrespectful opinions" were later endorsed by the state department, "contradicting in tone and in content" earlier statements by Secretary of State John Kerry.

Poor relations

Relations between the US and Venezuela have been strained in recent years. They last had ambassadors in each other's capitals in 2010.

Washington angered Caracas by backing the Venezuelan opposition's demand for a full recount of the presidential election in April to replace Hugo Chavez, who died in March.

Mr Chavez's anointed successor, Nicolas Maduro, won the vote by less than two percentage points.

In June, the two countries had tentatively agreed to work towards improving their strained relations, after Venezuela freed and deported a US filmmaker who had been held on conspiracy charges.

During a regional summit in Guatemala, Mr Kerry said he had agreed with Foreign Minister Elias Jaua on an "ongoing, continuing dialogue" in order to "establish a more constructive and positive relationship".

He said the US wanted to "begin to change the dialogue between our countries and hopefully quickly move the appointments of ambassadors between our nations".

Mr Jaua said at the time that for Venezuela it was important to build a relationship based on the principles of mutual respect and no interference in internal affairs.

Source: BBC