UPDATE: Chavez Rejects US Ambassador-Designate To Venezuela

(Updates with background, additional quotes from Chavez.)

    By Dan Molinski    Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES  

CARACAS (Dow Jones)--President Hugo Chavez on Sunday rejected the U.S. ambassador-designate to Venezuela after nominee Larry Palmer made remarks that infuriated the government in Caracas, including a suggestion that morale is low among Venezuelan soldiers.

"He can't come here, he has disqualified himself by breaking all the rules of diplomacy, by prejudging all of us, even our armed forces," Chavez said on television. "The best the U.S. can do is look for another candidate."

Palmer, who has served as an ambassador to Honduras, was nominated by President Barack Obama in June. He has not yet been confirmed by the Senate to replace the current ambassador, Patrick Duddy.

Ahead of the possible Senate confirmation vote, some U.S. senators sent Palmer questions aimed at gauging how he may handle the tense relations between the U.S. and Chavez, a firebrand socialist and frequent critic of U.S. policies.

It was the responses to a series of questions from U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R., Ind.), the ranking Republican on the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, that got Palmer into hot water with the Chavez government.

Regarding Venezuela's military, Palmer said "morale is reported to be considerably low, particularly due to politically oriented appointments."

He also wrote about alleged links between the Chavez government and Marxist Colombian guerrillas, accusations that Chavez steadfastly denies. Palmer said: "I am keenly aware of the clear ties between members of the Venezuelan government and Colombian guerillas."

A U.S. State Department official last week said Palmer got it right in terms of the opinions he expressed about relations between the U.S. and Venezuela.

Several attempts in recent days to reach Palmer were unsuccessful. U.S. Embassy officials in Caracas weren't immediately available to comment Sunday.

This is not the first time the Chavez government has had problems with U.S. envoys.

Duddy, the current ambassador, was booted out of the country in September 2008 for nearly a year in a show of solidarity with Bolivia after its president, Evo Morales, removed the top U.S. diplomat in La Paz for allegedly inciting violence. In addition, a former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro, has been accused by the government in Caracas of supporting a brief, failed coup against Chavez in 2002. Shapiro denies the claims.

-By Dan Molinski, Dow Jones Newswires; 58-414-120-5738; dan.molinski@dowjones.com