Flood-Torn Venezuela Rejects U.S. Troops

As a U.S. Navy ship en route to Venezuela reversed course for home, Venezuelan officials said Friday that they want the United States to change its offer of flood relief aid by sending equipment but not military personnel.

The U.S. ship Tortuga was ordered back to Norfolk, Va., and the Nashville was kept at port in North Carolina, after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country didn’t need the 450 Marine and Navy engineers the ships were to transport.

The troops were to help rebuild a key coastal highway destroyed in December by mudslides and floods that killed up to 30,000 people.

The Tortuga left port Tuesday, but a day later Chavez said he didn’t want the troops in Venezuela.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel on Friday released a letter sent to the U.S. ambassador in Caracas explaining that--while Venezuela could use the bulldozers, tractors and other heavy equipment the United States planned to send--it has no need for more relief personnel.

Rangel said the equipment could be operated by Venezuelans.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth H. Bacon earlier said the U.S. equipment cannot be supplied without people to run it, maintain it and bring it back home after the work is done.

U.S. officials said they were dismayed by the change of position, since Venezuelan Defense Minister Raul Salazar requested the equipment and troops in a Dec. 24 letter.

Venezuelan officials offered no explanation for the change.

U.S. State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said the deployment was authorized after close coordination with Venezuelan authorities and as part of a $25-million U.S. aid package. The Venezuelan government earlier welcomed U.S. help, including Black Hawk helicopters, C-130 cargo planes and a C-5 Galaxy cargo plane.

The U.S. military personnel had been expected to work in Venezuela for at least two months.

Bacon said the U.S. relief effort in Venezuela, which includes four helicopters, 120 troops and several water purification units, would continue.

The issue of U.S. troops is a sensitive one in Venezuela, where the left-leaning Chavez last year denied a U.S. request to use Venezuelan airspace for anti-drug reconnaissance flights.

Chavez often speaks of the need to reduce U.S. influence in the world and has developed a close friendship with Cuba’s Fidel Castro.