After what can only be described as a disastrous 8 year relationship between the U.S. and Venezuela under the Bush administration, the Venezuelan government appears to be changing its tone (if not its rhetoric) with regard to the big bad country to the north. Venezuelan parlament members were in Washington D.C. this week and made some promising statements about changes on the horizon in the strained U.S.-Venezuela relationship:

“While the current government’s priority will be to resolve the economic crisis, it is necessary that we begin to dialogue in order to build new ways to come together, situations in which our similarities might be rescued,” said Francisco Torrealba, member of the National Assembly.

Torrealba says that he wants to re-ignite mutual exchange between his country’s national assembly and the U.S. Senate, something that had been lost under the Bush administration.

All of this sounds pretty promising, but Torrealba did criticize Barack Obama for “making negative comments about Chávez“, though he implied that Obama might have misled by others before making these statements.

Let’s hope Obama lives up to his campaign promise of dialoguing with Venezuela. It’s what’s best for both countries. But wait, what about these comments from Huguito?

Via / El Universal (Venezuela)