Nation facing a new era

 John Maisto is concluding a 3 1/2-year stint as Washington's top diplomat in
 Caracas.

 BY DON BOHNING

 Venezuela is confronting an uncertain future, says outgoing U.S. Ambassador
 John Maisto, with the country's well-being resting heavily on its hard-charging
 president, Hugo Chávez, and his high octane political rhetoric.

 ``Venezuela is facing a crossroads . . . Venezuelans are going to have to make
 their own decisions as to which way they want to go,'' Maisto, a veteran U.S.
 diplomat, said last week in an interview in Miami after concluding a 3 1/2-year
 stint as Washington's top diplomat in Caracas.

 ``The ball is squarely in the court of Hugo Chávez and his government,'' Maisto
 said. ``They won the elections pretty resoundingly. They have control of the
 executive branch. They have a majority, although not an absolute one, in the
 legislature, and we'll have to see how the institutions come out.

 ``The bottom line for success is the economy and the political rhetoric and the
 political reality that goes with the economy,'' Maisto said. He acknowledged that
 the rhetoric ``has been terrible. And, as a result, the country risk-factor has been
 pretty high, while the economic realities probably don't merit such a high risk
 categorization.''

 GOOD OPPORTUNITIES

 There are, he said, some good opportunities for U.S. investors in Venezuela.

 He cited Chavez's first speech after his July 30 reelection to a six-year-term as
 one in which ``the tone was moderate and welcomed by the Venezuelan private
 sector. The reaction was positive because everyone is looking for a lowering of the
 rhetoric . . . because the charged political rhetoric negatively affects the
 investment climate.''

 But are there enough checks and balances within the Venezuelan system to
 restrain Chávez, a charismatic populist and ex-military officer with what appear to
 be authoritarian tendencies?

 LEGITIMATE QUESTION

 Maisto acknowledged the concern and said he thinks it is ``premature to make
 any judgments about this particular, very legitimate question.'' He noted that
 ``there are Venezuelan institutions in place. We have to see how those
 institutions work under the new constitution. That's one of the unknowns.''

 Washington's reaction to the perceived Chávez digs at the United States has
 been generally to ignore them. One excpetion was the Venezuelan president's
 recent visit to Iraq and Saddam Hussein in conjunction with a tour of OPEC
 member states to extend the leaders an invitation to a summit in Caracas in
 September.

 Chávez is calling for the lifting of U.N. sanctions against Iraq imposed after the
 Persian Gulf War and and strongly backed by the U.S. government.

 On Sunday, Chávez followed up his trip to Iraq with a visit to Libya -- another
 nation often at odds with the United States.

 Meeting with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, Chávez praised the country's
 economic and political reforms and called the 1986 U.S. bombing of Tripoli a
 ``criminal act.'' The two leaders discussed bilateral relations and the prospect of
 further cooperation, according to the Libyan News Agency.

 Other high profile snubs included the refusal to allow U.S. drug surveillance flights
 over Venezuelan territory. Chávez also ordered the last minute turn-around of two
 U.S. Navy ships bound for Venezuela with about 400 Seebees and engineers
 along with heavy equipment to reconstruct a coastal highway after landslides and
 flooding this year. In addition, Chávez has maintained a close friendship with
 Cuba and Fidel Castro.

 As for Cuban influence, Maisto said the new Venezuelan constitution has nothing
 that resembles ``anything socialist or communist. Then look at the policies and
 there is nothing you can sink your teeth into,'' Maisto said.

 But he added: ``We're always concerned about Cuban influence and we follow
 these things very closely, very closely.''

 This report was supplemented by material from the Associated Press.