WASHINGTON—Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez poses a threat to democracy in Latin America through his populist influence in countries such as Bolivia, U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte said on Tuesday.
Chavez, a leftist who won re-election easily last month, is a persistent critic of the United States and has rattled investors with moves to nationalize Venezuela's oil, energy and other assets.
Criticized by political opponents and Washington, he also plans to strip the central bank of its autonomy and eliminate presidential term limits to speed a "socialist revolution" he began when he first took office in 1999.
Negroponte, nominated by President George W. Bush for the No. 2 spot in the State Department, told lawmakers Chavez has had some success at exporting his style of "radical populism."
"I think that his behavior is threatening to democracies in the region," Negroponte told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's deputy-designate.
"I do not think he has been a constructive force in the hemisphere. So I think countries like Bolivia, among others, have been under the influence of Mr. Chavez."
Negroponte, a career diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Honduras during the early 1980s, said democracy in Latin America was "doing quite well," by and large.
But he noted that populism has taken hold in the region because of frustrations caused by the inability of democracy to deliver the kinds of results people expected.
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