Venezuela groups get US aid amid meddling charges

Since President Hugo Chávez returned to power after a brief coup in 2002, the United States has channeled millions of dollars to Venezuelan organizations, many of them critical of his government. This aid has become a key issue in the presidential election next month amid claims of US interference in the domestic political system. "Washington thinks it can buy regime change in Venezuela," said Carlos Escarrá, a constitutional lawyer and a leading legislator in the National Assembly who has been pushing for tighter regulation over the US financing of Venezuelan groups. "This is an affront to our sovereignty as a nation that is not docile to Washington's interests." He echoed recent comments from other high-ranking officials and from Chávez, who has a double-digit lead in most polls over his main opponent, Manuel Rosales, the governor of Zulia State. Chávez rarely refers in public to Rosales by name, instead framing his campaign as a choice between his government and the Bush administration. US diplomats in Venezuela have remained largely quiet in commenting on the election, which is scheduled for Dec. 3, in contrast to the active role US officials played in Nicaragua before the election of Daniel Ortega earlier this week. The United States Agency for International Development has distributed about $25 million to various Venezuelan organizations over the last five years. The funds have been channeled to the Venezuelan groups through private and public entities from the United States that have opened offices in Caracas. These include Development Alternatives Inc., a Bethesda, MD, company that works closely with the State Department in dispersing funds around the world, and the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, two Washington groups that have carried out training for emerging political leaders in Venezuela. Documents obtained from the United States government under the Freedom of Information Act point to numerous grants made by the United States in the past two years to groups whose activities are viewed as critical of Chávez's government. The international development agency withheld the names of many of the grant recipients, saying that the disclosure of their identities could put them at risk of political retaliation. All of the grants were channeled through Development Alternatives, which worked on behalf of the Office of Transition Initiatives, a little-known branch of the international development agency that started operating in Venezuela after the April 2002 coup. Some grants were directed at organizations whose stated objectives seemed to look for potential weaknesses in Chávez's administration. One $33,304 grant in March 2005 was called "Land Redistribution Dos and Don'ts," and required its unidentified recipient to investigate agricultural policies in areas where the federal government had been carrying out land expropriations. Other grants had what appeared to be an objective of building support for potential rivals to Chávez. A $47,459 grant, for instance, was made in July 2005 to an organization whose goal was to meet with organizations to build a "democratic leadership campaign."