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of Venezuela/Colombia relations should realize. You are taking a cheap shot at the PEACE PROCESS that these two leaders have initiated. I don't trust Santos one bit--and I'm sure Chavez and his advisers have their own reservations--but I also don't want to see Venezuela and Colombia AT WAR--and that is where things were heading with the belligerent, nutso Uribe in charge.
This is a DIPLOMATIC alliance for the sake of both countries' economies. Chavez response to Santos, agreeing that they are "new best friends" was a DIPLOMATIC answer, to further their agreements. As reported, Chavez specifically stated, "that both countries were obliged to come to terms with the other, despite their difference in political ideology." They will never be "best friends" in reality. Everybody knows this. But for the sake of the extensive trade between their countries, for the sake of their new economic agreements and for the sake of stabilizing their highly unstable border, they are in accord.
Chavez tried, time and again, to reach such an accord with Uribe--to PREVENT the U.S. from using Uribe as a tool for aggression against Venezuela (as it did against Ecuador in early 2008). Venezuela and Colombia have a long border and a long history together. The U.S. military presence in Colombia and in the region is extremely dangerous to independent democratic governments such as Venezuela's (non-U.S. client states). Chavez has a duty to his people to insure peace with this U.S.-armed neighbor ($7 BILLION in U.S. military aid) . And, as he proved with Uribe, he will go to great lengths in trying to do so--even to the point of suffering utter treachery (as when Uribe asked him to negotiate with the FARC for hostage releases, then later used that against Chavez, accusing him of being a "terrorist-lover").
Santos is smarter than Uribe. I've compared them to Rumsfeld and Bush Jr., respectively. I don't trust Santos, as I said. I think he is CIA-vetted and essentially CIA-controlled. He may not stoop to the low treachery of Uribe, but he is perfectly capable of a grander treacherous strategy that would use a "peace accord" for eventual overthrow of the Chavez government and/or war. All those U.S. military assets in Colombia and in the region are not there for no reason. Venezuela is clearly a target country on the Pentagon's Big Dartboard. And, if push comes to shove, I have no doubt whatsoever whose side Santos will be on. He has been closely tied to the Colombian military and to the Pentagon, U.S. war profiteers and rightwing U.S. political warmongers.
However, Santos--to everyone's surprise (indeed, to open-mouthed astonishment)--has decided to be more pragmatic, and part of that decision may be that the U.S. is bankrupt and may not be able to continue propping up the fascist elite in Colombia with lavish military aid. Another part may be the difficulty that labor Democrats in the U.S. Congress have presented with regard to a U.S./Colombia "free trade for the rich" agreement--their objections to the short lives of trade unionists in Colombia (hundreds of whom have been murdered by the Colombian military and its death squads--about half and half, according to Amnesty International). Colombia has one of the worst human rights records on earth, and THE worst human displacement crisis. At least 5 MILLION poor Colombian peasant farmers have been displaced from their lands, with about half a million of them fleeing into Venezuela and Ecuador for refuge, mostly from the Colombian military and its death squads. Colombia's reputation in Latin America and in the world badly needs an image clean-up, mainly for trade purposes. That is what Santos has undertaken. And it suits Chavez because Chavez--like the other leaders in Latin America--wants PEACE.
If this Venezuela/Colombia peace works out--if it doesn't ultimately result in U.S./Colombian treachery and regional war (my fear, given the forces at work in Colombia and here, that WANT war and that are PLANNING war)--it will be a model that should be followed EVERYWHERE that U.S. war profiteers have been stirring up trouble, including, for instance, with Iran. Chavez, Brazil's Lula da Silva and other leftist leaders in Latin America have gone out of their way to achieve PEACEFUL relations with Iran, despite anything they and their people might object to in Iranian policy--for instance, the status of women in Iran. The Chavez government proposed an equal rights amendment for women and gays in Venezuela. Brazil just elected a woman as president (Lula da Silva's chief of staff, Dilma Rousseff). They cannot be comfortable with Islamic oppression of women. Yet WAR IS NOT THE WAY TO SOLVE THIS OR ANY OTHER PROBLEM.
Thus, Chavez--despite anything that he might object to in Colombia's government or its lawless military and their death squads--sees that the way to change things is PEACE--the strengthening of prosperity and democracy on both sides of the border. PEACE cannot be achieved if he is hostile to Santos. He is making a bet, for sure, but it is the best bet that he can make. Go for peace! Let peace prevail, and the activities of social movements and democracy begin to have a chance at success.
That is the leftist position in Latin America. They all want peace. They have all been working for peace--in very coordinated ways. And Colombia has stood out like a sore thumb--armed by the U.S., still slaughtering leftists, whether armed or peaceful. Dilma Rousseff was part of the armed resistance to fascist dictatorship in Brazil. She was tortured by the dictatorship. She is now president of Brazil. Jose Mujica in Uruguay was also part of the armed resistance to that dictatorship, and was jailed and tortured. He is now president of Uruguay. Daniel Ortega was the leader of the armed resistance to the fascist dictatorship in Nicaragua, which won that revolution, then won the elections and was ousted by the U.S. Ortega is now president of Nicaragua in this very new Latin America. Chavez also briefly engaged in armed resistance, after Venezuela's rightwing government slaughtered hundreds of peaceful protestors. And he, of course, is now president of Venezuela. The Colombia/U.S. slaughter of the armed leftists in Colombia is similar to the fascist slaughter of leftists throughout Latin America in previous decades. It is based on the insane, war profiteer notion that you can exterminate and terrorize the leftist MAJORITY if you bring enough firepower to bear in a civil war and kill off enough leftist leaders, whether armed or not. A peace accord should have been negotiated long ago with the FARC guerrillas, and the vast social injustice in Colombia--the chief cause of both armed and peaceful resistance--should long ago have been addressed.
These things will clearly NOT happen if the war profiteers in the U.S. and Colombia manage to expand Colombia's civil war to Venezuela and the region. THAT is what Chavez is trying to prevent. And if he has to say he's "best friends" with Santos, to get there, more power to him. This is what diplomacy IS--and the U.S. government had better learn how to do it, once again, because our war, militarism and bullying have failed to get us anything except into this hell-hole of debt, bankruptcy and well-deserved opprobrium throughout the world.
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