Brazil's new president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is leading a South American initiative to help resolve the crisis in neighboring Venezuela, where a general strike has crippled the nation's oil industry. Venezuela's opposition questions the leftist Lula's impartiality and is eager for U.S. involvement. The United States has endorsed an electoral solution to the crisis. NPR's Martin Kaste has the story from Rio de Janeiro.
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