After the warm camaraderie that resulted in the boy’s club handshaking and all-around friendly truces and reconciliations in the recently held Summit of the Americas, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced that diplomat Roy Chaderton is appointed new ambassador to the United States. After gleaning that US President Barack Obama is an ‘intelligent man,’ Chavez now hopes to move towards normalizing relations with the US.
With this recent development, the tensions have definitely ebbed. Venezuela and the United States suspended diplomatic relations in September 2008 following the expulsion of the US ambassador in Caracas, Patrick Duddy. In response, the US government then expelled the ambassador of Venezuela in Washington, Bernardo Alvarez.
According to Chavez, the new ambassador is mandated to conduct a new era of political and economic relations. Chavez hopes that US impositions on Latin America will change as much as imperialism will end. He trusts that Obama is the president that will crumble the old imperialism. The truth is not lost on Chaves who admits that, in spite of diplomatic friction in recent times, Venezuela persisted to sell millions of barrels of oil to the United States, and that the US remains as one of Venezuela’s top oil exporters.
