Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela’s ambassador to the United States, is scheduled to travel to Alaska on Thursday and Friday on a mission to strengthen relations with the state’s indigenous tribes and promote cultural, commercial and academic links between the U.S. and Venezuela, according to the Venezuelan embassy. Alvarez plans to meet with elected officials, speak to students and faculty at the University of Alaska, and participate in some media interviews, the embassy said. He will also meet with the executive leadership of the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council and speak to a number of tribal chiefs that have benefited from a discounted heating oil program sponsored by the CITGO Corp., which Venezuela’s state oil company owns.

Alvarez has been Venezuela’s top envoy to the United States since 2003. He left the United States in September 2008 in a diplomatic dispute but returned to his post in June, the embassy said.

[Source: ADN]