From Insults to Handshakes
March 10, 2008
As I have always maintained, Hugo Chavez’s greater success is his foreign, rather than domestic policy. Here is another triumph for the Venezuelan leader. Uribe presumably calculated he could strike two birds with an arrow by launching an Israeli-style cross border assassination raid. It would provoke a reaction from las FARC, the very likely execution of Ingrid Betancourt, discrediting the guerrillas and eliminating a political rival in the same fell swoop. Chavez’s reaction was smart. Colombia as he is well aware cannot afford an escalation, neither does it have the military strength for it. He showed resolve with regards to the emerging unity between the Latin American countries, and did it within a context where he has the moral upper ground. No one can accuse him of interfering in another state’s business, when his actions are precisely aimed at deterring such intervention. In the end he succeeded in isolating Uribe and made it next to impossible for Colombia to attempt another such adventure. Last, but not least, he has turned Israel into the yardstick for International terror, by declaring Colombia the Israel of Latin America. Regardless of how the mainstream media or detractors would want to spin this, this was another triumph for Hugo Chavez.
hip-hip-hurray!!! now let freedom ring up north!!
You’re forgetting that almost all Latin American countries condemned the action thus isolating Uribe and putting the USA in the difficult situation of either abstaining (what they did) or backing an isolated leader who was responsible for breaking international laws.
That has to do with more local unity boosted by, but not merely, Chaves. In Latin America, the biggest policy maker is still Brazil.