U.S. freezes assets of three Venezuelans

A diplomatic proxy war escalated Friday between the United States and three Latin American countries as the Bush administration froze the assets of three Venezuelans close to President Hugo Chavez.

The actions followed Mr. Chavez’s expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy and the recall of Venezuela’s ambassador to the United States. Honduras, meanwhile, announced it was postponing the accrediting of the U.S. envoy to that country.

Bolivia touched off the tit-for-tat diplomatic conflict on Wednesday. Reacting to growing political violence that has killed at least a dozen people this week and opposition to the populist government of President Evo Morales, Bolivia accused U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg of conspiring with opposition parties that oppose his plans to revamp the constitution and steer natural gas tax revenue to impoverished Indians.

Washington quickly responded in kind and declared Bolivian Ambassador Gustavo Guzman persona non grata.

Specialists on Latin America said the diplomatic fray was unlikely to affect oil prices but could further hamper U.S. efforts to stop the production and trade of narcotics and reduce U.S. influence in the region, by prompting more economic and trade deals that exclude Washington.

Jaime Darenblum, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Latin American Studies and former Costa Rican ambassador to the U.S., told The Washington Times that Mr. Chavez’s moves were prompted in large part by a trial under way in Miami, where U.S. prosecutors have accused a Venezuelan man of being a foreign agent who tried to cover links between Venezuela and an election scandal in Argentina.

In Friday’s action, the Treasury Department accused one former and two current Venezuelan government officials of supporting FARC rebels in Colombia. The action freezes any assets the men have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. citizens from doing business involving those assets.

“[This] exposes two senior Venezuelan government officials and one former official who armed, abetted and funded the FARC, even as it terrorized and kidnapped innocents,” said Adam J. Szubin, director of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The Venezuelan Embassy in Washington declined comment, directing questions to the government in Caracas.

The latest actions reflect a deepening downward spiral in relations between the United States and Mr. Chavez, a fiery populist who has aligned himself increasingly with Russia and Iran, as well as other Latin leftists.

Thursday’s expulsion was the first time Mr. Chavez has expelled a U.S. ambassador.

The move came a day after Russian Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers landed in Venezuela with plans to return to Russia on Sept. 15. But on Thursday, Russia’s air force said the bombers would stay in Venezuela if asked by the Venezuelan government, according to the Russian News and Information Agency.

David Rothkopf, a Latin America specialist and chief executive officer of Garten Rothkopf, a consulting firm in Washington, said that Russia, Venezuela and Bolivia are part of a “growing international anti-globalist alliance to counterbalance the United States.”

Still, Mr. Darenblum said that nothing substantive is being ruptured. “None of these countries are breaking relations,” he said. “They are just targeting ambassadors.”

Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington-based think tank, agreed.

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