Chavez's olive branch helps end South American crisis

[bemildred]

Source: AFP

CARACAS (AFP) - Latin America breathed easier Saturday after Colombia and Ecuador found a peaceful resolution to a crisis that fiery Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez helped stir and then quell.

To general surprise, Chavez, who only days earlier was stoking the fires by ordering his own troops to Colombia's border, intervened during a tense summit Friday to ease regional tensions, setting himself up as the agent of peace.

"We cannot continue to blow the winds of war," Chavez declared at the Rio Group summit in Santo Domingo after Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa and Colombia's US-backed leader Alvaro Uribe traded recriminations.

The dispute had begun March 1 when Colombia unilaterally attacked a FARC rebel camp inside Ecuador, prompting Quito and Caracas to send reinforcements to their borders and break relations with Bogota.

Read more: http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/newsmlmmd.3b15e092498d8be553a1ea1f11c21cae.71.html

[bemildred]

1. Ecuador president not ready yet to re-establish ties with Colombia

Ecuador is not yet ready to re-establish diplomatic relations with Colombia despite a recent agreement to end a diplomatic crisis triggered by a Colombian raid inside Ecuador, President Rafael Correa said Saturday.

The restoration of diplomatic relations "will take a little time," Correa said in his weekly radio address. (AP)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3516551,00.html

[RC]

2. Sumthin' ain't right here. Now why would Chavez stir things up, then step in and

cool thing off again? The White House involved here?

[pop goes the weasel]

3. WH involved? Of course

Probably all three Latin American presidents came to the conclusion that a war would simply give the US an excuse to intervene--something that I'm sure not even Colombia wants. So that's likely what the WH involvement was--a looming threat of "paternalistic" intervention.

[cliss]

4. It was the trade embargo

that did it.

Urribe must have been severly outnumbered when Venezuela stopped Colombian goods at the border. Daring, bold move by Chavez. It worked.

[Peace Patriot]

5. AFP must 've hired an AP reporter. AP, the most unreliable news service on

earth, regarding South America, likes to throw in colorful words to make "Hugo" look...(take your pick)...crazy, dictatorial, inconsistent, warmongering, communistic, drug-addled, baffoony, wife beating, child molesting...ahem.

And here, AFP takes up the task (of making "Hugo," who has busted the World Bank loan sharks in South America, and gotten six hostages released, look bad).

The "fiery" Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez "helped stir" this up. Um, WHO invaded Ecuador?

And then helped "quell" it. (He must be loco--or just playing games.)

To "general" surprise (Chavez intervened for peace). Classic AP, committed here by AFP. Who is this "general"? (Someone in the Colombian military?) WHO, AFP? WHO is "surprised" that Chavez--who just got six hostages released by being PEACEFUL, and by advocating a PEACEFUL solution to Colombia's 40+ year civil war--that Chavez would intervene for peace?

Honestly.

"...stoking the fires by ordering his own troops to Colombia's border." 1) WHO started "the fires"? 2) What would YOU do, if you were president of the country on the OTHER border of Colombia, and thought YOU might be next, for a U.S. bombing incursion? (Yup, they were U.S. bombs, guided by U.S. surveillance.) It's not as if the Bush Junta hasn't been trying to topple the Chavez government, by any means possible, for six years now, is it? And WHOSE peace negotiations did this bombing of Ecuador destroy? The peace negotiations initiated by Chavez at COLOMBIA's request!

"...setting himself up as the agent of peace." Criminy! He WAS the "agent of peace." That was the whole point. He got six hostages released (two of whom were under fire from the Colombian military AS they were released!), and was working with the Presidents of France, Ecuador, Argentina and others to get more hostage releases, the first effort at peace in Colombia's civil war in several decades.

Finally, they say it was actually Uribe (Colombia) and Correa (Ecuador) who were engaged in "recriminations" at the conference. Aha! Not Chavez. Not the "fiery" leader who "stoked the fires" (by DEFENDING his border to PREVENT an incident), and whom General Surprise considered the aggressor not the peacemaker. (Again, WHO invaded whom? WHO got hostages released, a step toward peace?)

And...WHO has FIVE BILLION DOLLARS in U.S. military aid, and is armed to the teeth, and routinely slaughters union leaders, small peasant farmers, political leftists, human rights workers and journalists? Answer: NOT Chavez, who has harmed NO ONE.

AP throws in "friend of Fidel Castro" any time they mention Chavez (ignoring his many other friends among the leaders of Latin America). At least AFP doesn't do THAT.

What a piece of crap reporting!

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Hugo seems to be a wee bit more intelligent than George.

.
.
.

No surprise there.

[RC]

7. Now that is an understatement!

[Peace Patriot]

8. Can you imagine Bush reading Noam Chomsky--or recommending his book

to the UN delegates?

:rofl: :wow: :rofl: