2010: President Obama Failed to Name an Ambassador Acceptable to Venezuela

At the start of 2010, Bernardo Alvarez Herrara was Venezuela’s Ambassador to the United States and Patrick Duddy was US Ambassador to Venezuela. Duddy’s term of service ended on July 16, 2010.President Obama nominated Dr Larry Palmer to be the new ambassador to Venezuela. Palmer held a Ph.D in Education and had held various diplomatic posts throughout the 1980s and 1990s.Palmer had been the US Ambassador to Honduras 2002-2005. In 2010 he was President of the Inter-American Foundation.

Hugo Chavez gave his initial approval of Palmer’s nomination [1]. Palmer testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 27 and there were no major problems in his testimony. Palmer was subsequently asked to respond in writing to questions from Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Palmer’s answers to these questions were presumed to be for the senators and not for the public, but a week later, they were posted on Senator Lugar’s website [1]. Palmer referred to “morale” in the Venezuelan armed forces as “considerably low” and to “clear ties between the Venezuelan government and Columbian guerrillas” [1]. Chavez denied these accusations and announced on August 8 that Palmer was not acceptable and appealed to President Obama to appoint another ambassador [1].

President Obama did not withdraw Palmer’s nomination and did not nominate another candidate. In December the Department of State said that if the Senate approved Palmer’s nomination, he would be sent to Venezuela [2]. Chavez made it clear that Palmer would not be allowed to serve as US Ambassador and directed the Foreign Affairs Minister Nicolas Maduro to prevent Palmer from entering the country. The Senate never voted on Palmer’s nomination.

In late December 2010, the United States effectively expelled Venezuela’s Ambassador, Bernardo Alvarez Herrara, by withdrawing his visa [3]. Since 2010, the United States and Venezuela have not had Ambassadors.

According to congressional sources, the Lugar questions to Palmer and the leak of his answers was seen as a “setup from the right”.[1] Politically, Obama could not be seen as giving in to Chavez[4].

  

1.     Weisbrot, Mark, No ‘reset with Venezuela soon, Guardian, August 18, 2010

2.     U.S. Nominee Ambassador Palmer “cannot enter the country” says Venezuela’s Chavez, Venezuelanalysis, December 22, 2010

3.     New York Times, Venezuela: Ambassador’s Visa Revoked, December 30, 2010.

4.     Cardenas,Jose R., Obama’s Hugo Chavez Headache, Foreign Policy, August 19, 2010

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