|
Chavez's REPLY will be played up prominently, making it seem like Chavez is causing trouble again.
That's more how the design of these things goes at Langley.
Remember the ol' miracle laptop routine. Uribe asks Chavez to negotiate with the FARC for hostage releases. On the eve of Chavez's first negotiated hostage releases, Uribe pulls the rug out--publicly rescinds the request--then the Colombia military shoots at the hostages, as they are in route to their freedom. On top of this, a few months later, the U.S./Colombia drops ten 500 lb U.S. "smart bombs" on the FARC's hostage release negotiator, at his camp just inside Ecuador's border, blowing him and 24 other sleeping people to smithereens, and claims that they seized his in-tact laptop (later, laptopS) from the bombed out site, and that, in it, is "evidence" that Chavez and Correa were helping the FARC to get a "dirty bomb" and other wild allegations. But the part that stuck out, to me, was their accusation that Chavez had contacts with the FARC! Did they not just ASK him to? Yes. Does that matter? No. It flows into the corpo-fascist 'news' river of forgetfulness.
I DO NOT LIKE THIS SET-UP--Santos enticing Chavez to a meeting without a mediator such as Lula da Silva in the context of UNASUR. Chavez has good advisors and good intelligence, and he is quite smart and I think deeply committed to peace. But he is not without hubris. For instance, he thought he could influence Uribe against "the Yanquis," and I think underestimated the hold that the Yanquis had on Uribe. (He thus opened himself to the above -described treachery.) He seems to be trying to do the same thing with Santos--appeal to his Latin American loyalty. Santos is a far more dangerous man than Uribe, in my opinion. And he has zero, zip, NO such loyalty, whereas Uribe was a bit torn. For instance, amidst the uproar about the secretly negotiated U.S./Colombia military agreement, Uribe went on a tour of leaders in the region, trying to explain himself--and, an even more telling for instance, when the U.S./Colombia bombed Ecuador, Uribe eventually apologized, and promised that Colombia would never do such a thing again--but Santos stated publicly, at the time, that he would not hesitate to do it again. A third: when a plot to assassinate Chavez that was hatched within the Colombian military was exposed, Uribe apologized to Chavez (in a four hour meeting). Santos would never apologize, and now, with full control of the state security apparatus as well as the military, he would make sure that it wasn't exposed and that it achieved its end.
This makeover of Santos (did they send him to "Smile School" or what?) from the cold-blooded manager of the murders of thousands of civilians into the anti-Uribe, promising a better Colombia (which currently holds the second worst human rights record on earth) gives me the willies. It would not surprise me AT ALL if the next thing we hear is that Chavez's plane has crashed into a Colombian mountain, or that Colombia has invaded Venezuela, "in pursuit of the FARC," and Oil War II has commenced.
I'm NOT predicting these things in the near future. I'm saying I would not be surprised. That's what I think of Santos, and of the multinationals and war profiteers who are running things here, and there. Uribe was conflicted. Santos is not conflicted. Uribe was "erratic" (as The Economist recently described him, without explanation), apologizing one moment and stabbing Chavez in the back the next. Santos is not "erratic." He and his allies in Washington have a plan. He intends to carry it out. He will be ruthless in doing so.
As I said, I don't like the set-up. It may be a shrewd move by Chavez to agree to no mediators. It was MOST CERTAINLY a shrewd move by Santos to set these terms for discussion. And it may turn out to be foolish hubris on Chavez's part, even disastrous in minor ways or major ways. Only time will tell. But I think that Chavez has a bit too much of the "mano-a-mano" mentality--an attitude of manliness that presumes honor in the other party. He seems very resilient, as to finding out otherwise. I always admired his efforts with Uribe. He went the extra mile on numerous occasions. Is it possible to strike a mutually beneficial deal with a man like Santos? Maybe, in the short term, if that is the strategy designed in Washington. In the long term, Santos will not hesitate to try to crush Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution and the people of Venezuela with him. The best chance to avert a bad outcome is the collective strength and will of the people of Latin America, as expressed in their various leaders, and in their new regional organizations, especially UNASUR (which, in its very first days, averted a bad outcome in Bolivia). Chavez cannot do it alone. He seems to realize this, most of the time. He has certainly been the most passionate advocate of collective action, unity and cooperation. Is he making an ego mistake in this instance, taking on this new, smiling Santos alone, with the U.S. war machine bristling in the background, like a dark halo around that pasted-on smile?
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
