By Steven Gutkin. .c The Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela, 8 (AP) - President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that Venezuelans and Cubans are ``navigating in the same sea,'' comments likely to raise concern among Chavez's critics who say he's getting too close to Fidel Castro.
The Chavez administration also seems willing to confront the United States: on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel said Venezuela opposes two anti-drug monitoring centers the United States has set up on the Dutch islands of Curacao and Aruba.
Speaking to a group of Cuban doctors who came to Venezuela to help in relief efforts following December's devastating landslides, Chavez lauded Cuba's achievements in health and education and said Venezuela should follow the communist island's example.
``It is necessary that the peoples of this continent march toward that sea of happiness, of equality and justice,'' Chavez said. He told the Cuban doctors, ``Go tell Fidel that we love him.''
Chavez, a former army paratrooper who broke into Venezuela's national scene eight years ago by staging a failed military coup, was elected president in December 1998 promising to champion the rights of the poor.
Cuba sent 450 doctors and other medical personnel to Venezuela after flooding and mudslides killed thousands of people on the country's northern Caribbean coast in December.
Three of the doctors have since defected to Venezuela, saying they were seeking a better standard of living.
Chavez assured the Cuban delegation that his policy toward the United States is based on ``demanding respect for sovereignty.''
Speaking at a news conference, Rangel stressed that position when he criticized the U.S. drug monitoring centers on the Caribbean islands of Curacao and Aruba, saying ``that is a security zone for Venezuela.''
Chavez has refused to permit U.S. airplanes from those staging centers to fly over Venezuelan territory en route to Colombia, seriously hindering the centers' anti-drug efforts.
The United States is Venezuela's No. 1 trading partner, and Venezuela is one of the top three foreign suppliers of oil to the United States.
Chavez stirred controversy during a visit to Cuba last November when he said Venezuela is marching ``toward the same sea as the Cuban people ... a sea of happiness, true social justice and peace.''
Though Chavez is immensely popular in Venezuela, enjoying approval ratings upwards of 70 percent, he may be in the minority when it comes to his feelings about Cuba.
Distrust of communism in Venezuela is strong: a poll released late last year showed that 85 percent of the population is opposed to a Castro-like regime.
AP-NY-03-08-00 1949EST
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