By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

          TANAGUARENA, Venezuela, Jan. 19 -- The United States will
          keep helping victims of Venezuela's devastating floods despite
          President Hugo Chávez's recent decision to reject the assistance of
          hundreds of American military engineers, the United States ambassador
          to Venezuela, John Maisto, said today.

          "We are moving ahead. There is work to be done. Relations are good,"
          the ambassador said during a helicopter tour of the coastal zone most
          heavily damaged by vast flooding and landslides last month that killed as
          many as 30,000 people.

          Nevertheless, the American relief effort is less ambitious than it would
          have been had the army engineers been allowed to come. There are
          about 120 American soldiers in Venezuela whose main mission is to help
          provide clean drinking water to survivors.

          Some 450 Marine and Navy engineers had been expected to help
          rebuild the coastal road, an essential link for the region's transportation
          and commerce.

          But after Mr. Chávez said last week that he did not want the American
          soldiers in his country, United States officials ordered a Navy ship that
          was en route to Venezuela to reverse course.

          American officials said they were dismayed by Mr. Chávez's
          announcement, since Venezuela's defense minister had requested the help
          in a letter on Dec. 24.

          Ambassador Maisto toured the disaster area -- a swath of coastal
          communities just north of the capital of Caracas -- on a United States
          Army Blackhawk helicopter.

          The United States is playing a leading role in purifying water from the
          ocean and contaminated rivers to give to mudslide survivors.

          Eighteen machines -- half from the Army and half from a private
          company contracted by the United States government -- are purifying
          some 500,000 gallons of water a day.

          Other countries, including Israel, France, Uruguay and Spain, have
          brought their own water purification machines in Vargas state, where
          massive avalanches of mud and water on Dec. 15 came crashing down
          the mountain that separates Caracas from the Caribbean Sea.

          From the vantage point of a helicopter, it was apparent that where entire
          communities of homes, schools and shops once stood, there is now
          nothing but strewn boulders and tree trunks.

          In the town of Caraballeda, a housewife, Josefina Rodríguez, 50, said
          she was grateful to the United States for providing drinking water to her
          family, and criticized Mr. Chávez's decision to reject the American
          military engineers.

          "This was help for the state of Vargas," she said. "I don't know why Mr.
          Chávez sent them away."

          Mr. Chávez, a former army paratrooper who broke into Venezuela's
          political scene eight years ago by staging a failed military coup, remains
          popular.

          He has thanked the United States for its assistance, but he often speaks
          of the need to reduce American domination in the world. He has also
          raised some concern in Washington for his growing alliance with Cuba's
          Fidel Castro.

          American volunteers and soldiers interviewed today said that continuing
          rains were hampering relief efforts, and that they were concerned by the
          possibility of further damage.

          In this coastal city, American soldiers were forced to move water
          purifying machines after heavy rains this week caused a river to change
          course.

                     Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company