Oppenheimer, the FARC, Chavez, Obama and OAS

Busy, as I was traveling, I am only catching up. Thanks to a hat tip of PB I looked at recent articles of Andres Oppenheimer at the Miami Herald. As usual he has one of the clearest views of what is going in LatAm and how the US reacts to it.

The first one to cite is an interview he did with Barak Obama just before he did a major speech on Latin America in front of a Cuban audience. I am glad to see that I agree with him: Obama did his homework, which is good, but there is still a need to watch out for his sincerity and commitment on Latin America. An excellent first step, but only a step.

The other two OpEd pieces deal of course with the FARC and Chavez-Correa association with them. The opening paragraph on the Interpol report says it all:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his Ecuadorean counterpart Rafael Correa can scream and yell as loud as they want, but the fact is that they have been caught red-handed supporting a terrorist group that is trying to topple the democratically elected government of Colombia.

This piece asks four very pointed questions as to how the different players will assume their responsibilities, namely Chavez, Correa, Lula and the OAS (including the Lat Am presidents getting fat checks from Chavez). The Lula mention is particularly telling as he considers the Venezuelan president who has allied himself without any need to the FARC, a criminal organization, as the best Venezuelan president in 100 years. Yes, we are waiting for Lula new words on that now that his pal is a proven common criminal.

The third piece gives us already one of the answers: nothing much can be expected form a cowardly OAS and its Secretary General who everyday is sinking lower in disgrace. It is simply amazing how Secretary Jose Insulza has put up with Chavez grievous insults to his persona and has become one of his main enablers. Simply put, one cannot fail to wonder what horrible blackmail tool does Chavez hold on him. Because of course the other explanation is that Insulza is a stupid jerk, which no ones wants to believe. So, Insulza, what gives? Will you do your job as OAS secretary or will you be courting Chavez money for your planned Chile presidential campaign?

Or maybe indeed it is all simply, as Oppenheimer suggests, a case of collective cowardice, from Colombia to Insulza.

If everybody keeps looking the other way, and nobody even asks for a probe on the files' content, welcome to the law of the jungle!

Munich all over again?

It is not useless to remind that Chavez has no gratitude with any, that all what he touches turns into, well, you know. And that as long as he breathes in the Miraflores palace he will subvert any institution, any regime, any country that he might perceive as an obstacle on his way. Exactly as Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Castro and even Peron did. Same difference when all is said and done, just a different methods and body bag counts.

Still, among all of these cowards we cannot help but be impressed by the worst of the lot, the one without any excuse: Insulza. At least Lula racks billions for Brazil. Insulza has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to show for his meretricious work.

-The end-