Obama honeymoon with Venezuela's Chavez may be over

By Raymond Colitt - Analysis

CARACAS (Reuters) - When Venezuela's socialist leader Hugo Chavez told U.S. President Barack Obama in April he wanted to be his friend, there appeared to be a decent chance he would tone down some of his fierce anti-American rhetoric.

But relations have taken a turn for the worse and the Venezuelan president is once again on the attack.

Chavez first accused Washington of backing the coup in Honduras against President Manuel Zelaya, his leftist ally, and then reacted angrily to a U.S. Congress report that said corruption in his government had allowed a sharp rise in cocaine trafficking through Venezuela.

But Chavez was especially upset when Colombia said it planned to increase the number of U.S. anti-narcotics operations in the country.

Chavez says all three events show that U.S. hostilities toward Venezuela continue under Obama, and that the extra military help for Colombia's conservative government is a threat to Venezuela and its neighbors in the Andean region.

"Obama's mask is falling," Chavez told national legislators at the weekend. "The empire is still alive and kicking."

Within days of Colombia's announcement, Chavez, who has been in power for over a decade, said he would buy more tanks from Russia and strengthen the air force and navy.

Relations have, however, still not dropped to the lows seen during the administration of George W. Bush, and some analysts say Chavez's new bout of anti-American rhetoric does not mean he will consider interrupting Venezuela's large supply of oil to the United States or take any other serious measures.

"We need to pay less attention to what he says and more to what he does," said Orlando Perez, professor of political science at Central Michigan University, who specializes in U.S.-Latin American relations.

Obama has promised an overhaul of relations with Latin America, raising hopes that long-running tensions with a new bloc of leftist presidents led by Chavez would ease.

Venezuela and the United States recently restored full diplomatic relations and left-wing governments from Cuba to Ecuador have eased their sharp criticism of U.S. policies.

A LOST OPPORTUNITY?

But new disputes with Venezuela could fuel even greater arms spending in the region and hinder rather than help cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking.

"There's a risk of losing an opportunity," says Dan Hellinger, a professor of political science at Webster University who has written extensively about Venezuela.

Venezuela's government was furious over a report by the U.S. Congress' Government Accountability Office , which said Venezuela had a "permissive" attitude toward drug trafficking. Continued..