[NYTr] Chavez Ready to Turn to a New Page with Mexico

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

El Universal - August 7, 2007
http://english.eluniversal.com/2007/08/07/en_pol_art_president-chavez-rea_07A911927.shtml


President Chávez ready to turn to a new page with Mexico

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez claimed to be prepared to enter a new
stage and leave behind the clashes with Mexico.

However, he acknowledged that it would not be easy and blamed the
United States for trying to thwart this attempt, reported Tuesday
official news agency ABN.

"With Mexico we have said, let us turn over a new leaf, but it is not
easy," the head of state told Mexican journalist and author Elena
Poniatowska during an interview.

Poniatowska was awarded last week in Caracas the Rómulo Gallegos
International Novel Prize for her work "El tren pasa primero" (The
train goes first). Last Sunday, she was the special guest at Chávez' TV
and radio show "Aló Presidente," Efe reported.

The ruler conceded that the bilateral relation "had been difficult to
lift," even though his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderón admitted
recently that he was eager to "have good relations" with Venezuela.

Venezuela and Mexico are represented by deputy chiefs of missions
following the recall of their respective ambassadors ending 2005. At
that time, Chávez called then Mexican President Vicente Fox "a puppy of
the empire" for having advocated the US-sponsored Free Trade Area of
the Americas (FTAA).