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CARACAS — President Hugo Chavez welcomed the U.S. government's suggestion that it may nominate a new ambassador to Venezuela, joking that Washington might consider naming an American he knows and likes such as Oliver Stone or Sean Penn.
Chavez was upbeat while divulging details of a cordial encounter over the weekend with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. He said he views as a positive step a State Department announcement that the U.S. may nominate a new candidate for ambassador after he rejected the previous White House choice.
"I hope they name Oliver Stone ... Sean Penn," said Chavez, laughing during a televised Cabinet meeting Tuesday night. "We have many friends there."
The film director and actor have both visited Venezuela and expressed admiration for the leftist president.
The U.S. and Venezuela are embroiled in a dispute that has left them without ambassadors in each other's capitals. Chavez rejected the U.S. nominee for ambassador, Larry Palmer, accusing him of making disrespectful remarks about his government. That led Washington to revoke the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador in response.
But Chavez said his chance meeting with Clinton at the Brazilian president's inauguration on Saturday opened up possibilities, and that he expressed interest in dialogue with the U.S. government.
Chavez recalled telling Clinton that "if there's a rectification" on the part of Washington, his government will respond in kind.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said on Monday that the Obama administration regrets that Chavez refused to accept Palmer as ambassador and that the U.S. believes it is important to have an ambassador in Caracas. Crowley said the nomination of Palmer, who had been awaiting Senate confirmation, has expired and that "we will have to renominate ... an ambassador candidate."
Responding to the latest U.S. position, Chavez said: "We would be very ... pretentious if we were to think it's a sign of weakness, that we've defeated (the U.S.). No. They have their interests and we have ours."
Diplomats from the two countries have long had reduced contacts due to antagonism fed both by Chavez's condemnations of U.S. policies and by State Department criticisms of threats to democracy in Venezuela.
Palmer angered Chavez by suggesting — in written responses to questions from Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana — that morale is low in Venezuela's military and that he is concerned leftist Colombian rebels are finding refuge in Venezuela.
Chavez accused Palmer of dishonoring his government by expressing concerns on several sensitive subjects — including 2008 accusations by the U.S. Treasury Department that three members of Chavez's inner circle helped Colombian rebels by supplying arms and aiding drug-trafficking operations.
Still, Chavez seemed ready to put aside the rancor in his brief meeting with Clinton. He said he had been talking with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates when Clinton "stopped to talk" and the two approached each other and shook hands.
Chavez said they spoke with translation help from Socrates and other leaders, and that they both repeated themselves at times to make sure the other was understanding.
He said he asked Clinton if she had greeted Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos yet, and he then called out to the Colombian leader: "Santos, come here. My friend here wants to say hello."
"Then we started joking," Chavez said.
Clinton told him that she would be interested in "working directly" with him on the issue of the ambassador, Chavez said.
He recalled asking Clinton in broken English about her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and saying "give him my best, and I hope we can talk again." Chavez mentioned the former president as another American he views as a friend.
He said he also urged her to remind Obama of the time they shook hands at a summit in Trinidad last year. "Tell Obama ... that I'm the same, that I'm willing," Chavez said. "I hope so."
Chavez, whose anti-U.S. stance has been a defining feature of his 12-year presidency, has often used vehement condemnations of U.S. "imperialism" to appeal to nationalist sentiments among supporters while also drawing close to countries such as Cuba and Iran that share his views.
Despite such friction, the two countries are deeply linked by trade ties. Venezuela relies heavily on oil sales to the U.S., its top client, and imports large quantities of consumer goods from the United States.
