Fort Lauderdale, Fla. ? Against the backdrop of growing tensions between the United States and Venezuela, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Sunday for nations in the Western Hemisphere to more actively support democracy and counter authoritarian trends in Latin America.

Speaking to foreign ministers and diplomats from 33 other countries gathered here for the general assembly of the Organization of American States, Rice asserted that governments in the Americas are no longer divided between liberal and conservative. The divide “is between those governments that are elected and govern democratically – and those that do not.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has emerged as a nettlesome foe of the Bush administration, denounced the idea on his weekly radio program Sunday, accusing the United States of trying to impose a “global dictatorship” and imposing its will on the region.

“The times in which the OAS was an instrument of the government in Washington are gone,” Chavez said in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. “Are they going to try, through the OAS, to monitor the Venezuelan government?”

Chavez added, “If there is any government that should be monitored by the OAS, then it should be the U.S. government, a government which backs terrorists, invades nations, tramples over its own people, seeks to install a global dictatorship.”

The United States for the first time in 31 years is the host of the annual three-day OAS meeting, and security here was extremely tight. Much of the downtown was locked down, and a helicopter hovered above the hotel where Rice and other senior diplomats are staying. President Bush is scheduled to address the meeting today.