Translation mine. The cause of all this altercation? Chavecito doesn’t appreciate the fact that Nasty, Brutish & Short is letting the gringos use Colombia for a staging ground to spy on, intimidate, and commit acts of aggression against, the sovereign nations of South America. Chavecito also didn’t take kindly to Uribe’s lies that he was supporting the FARC. The issue came to a head last year when Chavecito ordered the borders closed and all imports from Colombia stopped. The borders soon reopened, but trade did not. That’s what’s got Uribe all hot under his too-tight collar. He’s losing money and credibility daily, and the longer this goes on, the more Colombia’s gonna be hurting. (Yeah, surprise, Colombia’s most important regional trading partners, in terms of impact on the lives of smaller producers, aren’t the guys who buy their blow and their bananas, but those who buy their beef. That’s spelled V-E-N-E-Z-U-E-L-A. And if the latter keeps boogying with Argentina on that one, well…)Long story made short: Uribe picked the worst possible way to try to lance this festering sore and reopen trade talks. His petulant attitude is gonna cost him. Worse, it’s gonna cost Colombia. Which can ill afford to lose the goodwill of its neighbor, when all’s said. You can’t make up for that by any amount of toadying to Washington, no matter what anyone says.The question is now open as to who will get the blame from the lamestream anglo media for this undiplomatic incident. Place your bets, ladies ‘n’ gents…PS: For extra shits ‘n’ giggles, hear Mario Silva’s take on it all (in Spanish) here.The president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, picked a nasty fight with the Venezuelan president during lunch at the Rio Group Summit.Uribe, who arrived late, provoked a heated discussion and was almost beside himself when he interrupted President Chávez as he was explaining how commerce between Venezuela and Colombia had increased eightfold since he (Chávez) had come to power in 1999. Trade between the two nations rose from 1.6 billion dollars that year to 7.9 billion in 2008. It was then that Uribe interrupted, comparing the recent shut-down of trade with Colombia to the US blockade of Cuba.Uribe continued interrupting the Venezuelan leader as he was defending his position. Chávez asked him to let him finish his speech, and when he saw it was impossible to get Uribe to calm down, he told him to “go to hell”. Other sources who attended the luncheon explained that the Cuban president, Raúl Castro, who was attending the Rio Group Summit for the first time, tried to mediate between the two leaders to put an end to the argument.Uribe was the last president to arrive at Playa del Carmen, a seaside resort on Mexico’s Caribbean coast. There, he incorporated himself in sessions that had already begun, attended the official photo session, and later the luncheon offered by the Mexican president, Felipe Calderón.
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Fear doesn't travel well; just as it can warp judgment, its absence can diminish memory's truth. What terrifies one generation is likely to bring only a puzzled smile to the next. --Arthur Miller, "Why I Wrote 'The Crucible'", The New Yorker, October 21, 1996
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What’s with Rafa Correa? He was in a wheelchair during the meet and greet with Calderón, and looks like he’s hobbling around on crutches in your picture. Did Uribe kick him in the shins or something? Anyone know?
He’s had knee surgery recently in Cuba, to replace some damaged cartilage. I’m surprised that he’s travelling, but apparently he’s got medical clearance to do so.
I really think Alvaro didn’t get his hourly snort of powder. Mexican customs wouldn’t buy into the excuse that 400 kilos were for personal consumption. They just don’t know who bad the addiction can get. Alvaro gets a little cranky when he starts to have withdrawal.
Alvaro best watch himself. If he continues to bait all his neighbors, the Colombian economy is going to crater worse than it already has and this time he can’t blame FARC. In his speeches for re-election he is going to use the modified Giuliani campaign strategy for all his sentence construction; a noun, a verb and FARC. OK, so I stole that from Joe Biden. It’s still a good line.
By the way, it seems that Panama’s new Il Duce, Martinelli, has decided to throw his lot in with El Narcopresidente. He recently announced that a company of soldiers had recently returned from Colombia after being trained by Alvaro’s thugs. Of course, Panama’s constitution forbids an Armed Forces, but he also now has a navy and an air force. Does anyone else smell the School Of the Americas (SoA) (or as its more commonly known as, Dictator Graduate School) and the US Department of Imperialism, …uh, …er, State?
Okke Ornstein has Bananama Republic back up and running for all the sordid details of this blossoming dictator. Funny how those Italian sounding names make such good lapdogs. Micheletti, Martinelli, Mussolini…
BTW, Mario Silva’s piece on Alvaro’s tantrum is really a hoot. I laughed through most of it.
I’ve got a pic in my files labelled “guidos.jpg”. It concerns those tacky boys with the fake tans and gelled hair from Noo Joizey, but I’m sure it can be fitted into the theme of Latin mafiosi somehow…