MIAMI (AP) – This was the aftermath of a failed coup against Hugo Chávez and Rep. Gregory Meeks slept at the Kennedy complex on Cape Cod with a young Venezuelan lawmaker with a forest mustache named Nicolás Maduro.
Photos from the 2002 meeting show the men standing shoulder to shoulder and bonding over their shared love of baseball and stories about their respective challenging educations – Maduro in the streets of Caracas, where left-wing radicals like him were shot, and Meeks in a public housing project in Harlem, the son of a struggling boxer and teacher.
The exchange would be little more than an anecdote, but for Maduro’s rise to Venezuela’s presidency in 2013 and Meeks’ own unlikely climb through Washington’s ruthless politics to become the first black chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee this month. word.
Now, two decades later, the New York Democrat says he is willing to confront Maduro, whom he remembers from that time, as a good listener and committed to social justice, if asked.
“There will be no softballs or memories of the good old days,” Meeks said in an interview with The Associated Press this week. “We will talk really hard about what has happened and what needs to happen to undo the authoritarian things that have happened since the presidency.”
Talking to Maduro or not: this is the annoying question facing the incoming Biden government, as it is reconsidering a US policy that gathered exiles in Miami in exile but did little to seize Maduro’s power. to alleviate or alleviate the suffering of regular Venezuelans.
Supporters of Biden say the president-elect has limited options to put Maduro under pressure and that there are no plans to lift crippling oil sanctions or a charge against Maduro for drug trafficking.
But analysts expect Biden to turn off the almost daily vitriol aimed at Maduro, and the threats of a ‘military option’ that characterized Trump’s foreign policy, where Venezuela occupies a privileged space. Instead, he promised to emphasize a multilateral approach with the aim of holding free and fair elections as soon as possible.
Enter Meeks, who attended Chávez’s funeral in 2013 on behalf of the Obama administration and whose long association with Latin America makes him the ideal position to provide space for diplomacy. Although he does not speak Spanish, his reputation as a straight shooter earned him respect over the region’s ideological divide.
Among those with whom he has struck an unlikely alliance is former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a Conservative lawmaker who worked more than a decade ago to improve the fate of Afro-Colombians as part of of free trade talks that Meeks supported from his party. The relationship with Uribe – realized by Venezuela’s opposition and demonized by the left of Latin America – may come in handy as he tries to build momentum for a politically charged alliance with Maduro.
Maduro does not trust his own shadow. But he may trust Gregory Meeks, “said former representative Bill Delahunt. He travels with Meeks to Chávez’s funeral and then twice more to Caracas in a previously unreported mission to improve bilateral relations. ‘If anyone could move things forward, it would be Meeks. I have no doubt that he will be a valuable asset to Biden’s government. ‘
Meeks said he does not consider himself a peacemaker. But he said he was willing to talk to Maduro’s government as allies in Latin America, the European Union and the Biden government see value in such an approach.
He said his first trip as chairman since the succession of fellow New Yorker Eliot Engel would be to Haiti and Colombia, including a visit to the border with Venezuela where thousands of migrants cross daily in search of food and medical care.
“I want people to know that Latin America will not be an afterthought,” Meeks said.
More controversial, he is willing to involve Maduro stalwarts Cuba and Russia in any negotiations that come up – if the US allies agree.
“This is a possibility,” he said, adding that this week’s designation by the Trump administration of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism would make any outreach difficult. ‘This is how you resolve an issue of interest. You get purchases from a number of different people, so that it gives the people of Venezuela confidence in the election process. ‘
A recent State Department cable defending the Trump administration’s hard-line policy warns that Russia is working closely with Maduro’s military and financial officials to undermine hemispheric security. The cable, a copy of which was provided to AP by a congressional staff member on condition of anonymity to share diplomatic communications, calls for more aggressive support for pro-democracy efforts in Venezuela to supplement US sanctions.
“Russia has used its relationship with the regime to defy the United States symbolically and very publicly,” according to the September 9 cable, which is described as “sensitive but unclassified.” It was sent to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by James Story, the ambassador at the helm of the Venezuelan unit in Colombia.
“If left to chance, Venezuela will prove to be a very worrying grass on the side of US foreign policy in the region and will be very costly to US national interests,” the cable concludes.
A spokesman for Biden’s transition team declined to comment.
Meeks’ nearly 20-year relationship with Maduro began when they both founded the Boston Group. The informal network of American and Venezuelan lawmakers from across the political spectrum – Democrats, Republicans, Socialists and Capitalists – met in Washington and Cape Cod to restore bilateral relations after the brief US-led coup against Chávez.
The group was largely disbanded, with Meeks the only U.S. member still in Congress. But the relationships built two decades ago are resilient. For example, a Republican staff member who participated in the same four-day legislative exchange in Cape Code with Meeks and Maduro attempted to release Joshua Holt, a Utah man detained for two years in Caracas Prison. to liberate. commonly regarded as trump weapons.
Recently, former lawmaker Pedro Díaz-Blum, the Boston group’s coordinator in Venezuela, brought together dozens of pro-Maduro and opposition economists to prepare a joint study on how to reactivate the country’s devastated oil industry. They also discussed ways to direct humanitarian aid through multilateral agencies to the country.
After the US presidential election, Díaz-Blum travels to Washington and sees Meeks. Before the trip, after which, according to him, he arranged alone, he also met Maduro, who reiterated his willingness to enter into talks with the USA.
“I was a member of the Boston group as a legislator and went to the United States several times,” Maduro said in a speech to the Venezuelan Congress, which is controlled by the ruling Socialist Party, after elections held by the opposition boycotted is as unfair. “I respect and admire the United States, its people and its culture very much.”
After several failed negotiation attempts mediated by the Vatican and Norway, dialogue has become a buzzword for weakness and installment among many in the opposition. Not for nothing, the Trump administration has said the only thing to negotiate with Maduro is the terms of his resignation.
Meeks said he rejected the logic. Recently, even a close Trump ally, Richard Grenell, the former acting US director of national intelligence, met in Mexico City with Jorge Rodríguez, a top aide to Maduro, who is now president of the national government for the government. , which the US does not recognize. .
“The Trump policy was based on Florida politics – not getting anything done,” Meeks said.
He still said he had no illusions about Maduro. After Chávez’s funeral, Meeks said he had quietly returned to Caracas twice in a previously unreported attempt to pave the way for an exchange of ambassadors, which has not taken place since 2010. then in jail for leading protests against the government.
The reconciliation effort failed and Meeks said he walked away from the experience frustrated. Any future revelation would require predetermined conditions, he said.
“You can not just accept his word for it,” Meeks said of Maduro. “He proved to me that he was either unwilling to follow suit or that something in their politics was holding him back.”
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Joshua Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman