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Editorial Commentary
Veneconomy: NO to him
passing over into Colombia… for now?
Hugo Chávez is fast discarding the few bits of the democratic mask he still has in place for facing the rest of the world. A number of leaders have had to yank the reins on his interference in their countries’ internal affairs.
The incident with possibly the biggest political and economic repercussions is the recent confrontation between Colombia’s President Álvaro Uribe and Hugo Chávez.
Uribe’s decision to put an end to Chávez’ mediation with the FARC guerrilla group for the humanitarian exchange of kidnap victims has given rise to an exchange of hard-hitting accusations between the two heads of state seldom heard in this nick of the woods.It was clear from the start that Chávez’ purpose was to undermine Uribe politically and create a niche for Colombia’s ultra left groups, while at the same time using the opportunity to project himself politically at home and abroad.
Because of the humanitarian nature of the affair, Uribe was left with no alternative but to accept Chávez’ offer to mediate with the guerrillas. His responsibility is to exhaust all possible channels to obtain the release of the hundreds of people kidnapped by the FARC. The worst task is the one that is left undone, so they say, and Uribe could not leave that stone unturned, despite the risk that it would provoke a political tempest, as in fact it did.
Even though Chávez had the support of everyone involved, including the French Government and the families of the kidnap victims, the last priority on his agenda was to mediate on these families’ behalf. No matter how much he now insists on it and even though he implored the guerrilla Marulanda publicly, Chávez did not even manage to get proof that the victims were alive, a prerequisite to be able to move ahead with negotiating the exchange. Chávez even had to go empty handed to the meeting with his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy a week ago.
According to Uribe in his firm response to the insults hurled at him by Chávez following the suspension of the mediation process, the only progress made in these three months and more was to give the FARC an international platform, offers from Venezuela to facilitate them zones of détante in Venezuela, and Chávez’ attempts at interference with the Colombian military. Had the establishment of a zone of détante in Venezuela prospered, this would have opened a Pandora’s Box with incalculable tragic consequences for the country. Suffice it to look at the more than 50 years that Colombia has been trying to eradicate narco-terrorism from its territory and the innumerable lives it has taken.
If there is anything surprising in this entire process it has been Uribe’s patience and equanimity, because the epithets that Chávez used to discredit Uribe and the high-flown threats to cut off relations with his nearest neighbor and second largest trading partner are simply par for the course.
VenEconomy is a Venezuela's leading specialized publisher in the economic and financial area. VenEconomy's Points of View on the issues of the day, as seen by VenEconomy during the last week. Petroleumworld does not necessarily share these views.
Editor's note: This commentary was originally published by VenEconomy, on 11/28/2007. Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest of our readers. Petroleumworld does not necessarily share these views.
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Petroleumworld News 11/29/07
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