Venezuela Names Ambassador to Mexico After Spat

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez named a former foreign minister as ambassador to Mexico on Tuesday.

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez named a former foreign minister as ambassador to Mexico on Tuesday in a sign of warmer relations between the countries that withdrew their envoys in a diplomatic row in 2005.

Relations between the two oil-rich nations hit a low in 2005 when Chavez and then-President Vicente Fox exchanged a volley of insults, including Chavez dubbing Fox the "lap dog of the empire" for his close relations with the United States.

But on Tuesday he acknowledged Mexico's efforts at rapprochement.

"We have heard the messages from Mexico and we have no choice but to respond in the same way," Chavez said during a news conference in Buenos Aires during a four-nation tour of South America.

"We have designated an ambassador ... to Mexico City, Roy Chaderton."

Chaderton, 64, is a career diplomat who has served as foreign minister between 2002 and 2004 and previously served as ambassador to a host of nations including France and Colombia.

Mexico and Venezuela have maintained diplomatic relations but tensions remained high during the 2006 presidential campaign Felipe Calderon, who won the race in part by comparing his leftist rival to Chavez.

Chavez, the most visible face of Latin America's resurgent leftist politics, later refused to recognize Calderon's slim victory.

"Mexico is a great power and it would be good if Mexico looked more at South America and we looked more at Mexico," Chavez said on Tuesday.