A State Department spokesman, Roger Noriega, disputed Mr. Rivera and Mr. Fagoth.

In February 2004, Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega told voters to "consider what kind of a relationship they want a new administration to have with us."

On Wednesday, Roger Noriega, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said that "negative examples" from Mr. Chávez were mounting.

"He is not in control of anything but a ragtag band," an assistant secretary of state, Roger Noriega, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Among those under discussion, officials said, are Roger Noriega, ambassador to the Organization of American States, and Anne W. Patterson, ambassador to Colombia.

Roger Noriega, the Bush administration's assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, argues that nothing could be further from the truth.

Many "are grappling with persistent political, economic, social and, in some cases, ethnic problems," said Roger Noriega, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.

Roger Noriega, the former assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, repeatedly made the point during his tenure, echoing background briefings by Pentagon officials.

Earlier that week, the Air Force colonel had asked for an appointment with, among others, the American ambassador to the Organization of American States, Roger Noriega.

Roger Noriega (former Assistant Secretary of State and U.S. Representative to the OAS)