"Overdose", One good opinion on the Colombia Venezuela spat, referring to Venezuelans

I cannot wait to get away of the silly Chavez bad show on breaking up with Colombia. But this is an international blog and thus one must follow news that supposedly interest more the overseas folks. Besides, so much nonsense has been written on the topic in so few days that it was for me quite a treat to find an article today in El Nacional that goes right to the point, at least as far as Venezuelans are concerned in this whole matter.  In all the modesty I can muster it makes quite a nice complement to what I wrote a few days ago :)

Sobredosis (overdose) by Beatriz de Majo El Nacional today.  Spanish original at the end.  Ms. de Majo is the Colombian expert for El Nacional

In the unfortunate episode we trek as to our relation with Colombia we must distinguish between the anecdotal and the substantial.

You cannot blame the media for highlighting the declaration of the President breaking up [with Colombia], flanked by such a questionable character like Maradona, or the nonsensical speech at the OAS of [ambassador]Chaderton. But the crux of this drama is far from there.

In the findings presented by the government of Uribe at the OAS were they to be true, there are sufficient grounds for us to be the ones to go ahead and bring [our] Government to account to the International Criminal Court, and to turn it in a serious plea to the Security Council which holds the penalties.

If evidence presented by Colombia is worthy, who would definitely be harmed by it, before Colombia it is the Venezuelan entity, including this and many generations to come [who would be harmed by it]. Amid the din of the elections, seasoned writers on political issues have come to blame Alvaro Uribe for giving Hugo Chavez an electoral breather with this move.

If the population of the Venezuelan voters was made up by a herd of donkeys unable to distinguish between one thing and another, then it could be [true].

Of course, for a moment breaking relations with Colombia downplays other national problems, which are electoral matters. But the metastasis of guerrilla violence, coupled with the kidnapping for ransom, the murders, the forced integration of young people to their ranks, and its association with drug trafficking, are also a subject to put on the table with the same strength as the high cost of living , poor health, food putrefaction.

And this message is primarily aimed at businessmen who deplore, rightly, not to do business with Colombia as a result of the break up. If we do not stop this contamination, were this guerilla to perpetuate this penetration on our soil, there will be no room left here for business among Venezuelans.

We cannot be short-sighted and do not understand that if the Bolivarian revolution has, in the words of Colombia, a protective environment for the terrorist insurgency, this is damaging to Venezuela in its essence of a free and peaceful nation. We are infected by the pus of terrorism and this drives away investment from our own and others. It generates space for criminals, guerrillas and drug traffickers within a human group that wants nothing else but to live in peace.

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En el episodio lamentable que transitamos en la relación con Colombia hay que distinguir entre lo anecdótico y lo sustantivo.

No puede culparse a la prensa por poner de relieve la declaratoria del Presidente de ruptura de relaciones flanqueado por un personaje tan cuestionado como Maradona, o el desatinado discurso de Chaderton en la OEA. Pero el meollo de este drama está lejos de estar allí.

En los hallazgos presentados por el gobierno de Uribe en la OEA, de ser ciertos, hay motivos suficientes para que seamos nosotros quienes nos adelantemos a llevar al Gobierno a rendir cuentas ante la Corte Penal Internacional, y a hacer de eso un serio alegato ante el Consejo de Seguridad que tiene en sus manos la imposición de sanciones.

De ser serias las evidencias presentadas por Colombia, a quien se estaría lesionado de manera definitiva, primero que a Colombia, es al conglomerado venezolano, incluidas esta y varias generaciones por venir. En medio del fragor de la lucha electoral, articulistas avezados en los temas políticos han llegado a culpar a Álvaro Uribe de darle aliento electoral a Hugo Chávez con este movimiento.

Si el pueblo de votantes venezolano estuviera constituido por una manada de asnos incapaces de distinguir entre una cosa y otra, podría ser así.

Claro que, momentáneamente, la ruptura de relaciones con Colombia le resta importancia a los otros problemas nacionales, que son materia electoral. Pero la metástasis de la violencia guerrillera, junto con el secuestro extorsivo, los asesinatos, la captura de jóvenes para sus filas, y su concomitancia con el narcotráfico, son también materia a poner sobre el tapete con la misma fuerza que la carestía de la vida, la precariedad de la salud, la putrefacción de alimentos.

Y este mensaje va en primer lugar dirigido a los empresarios que deploran, con razón, no poder hacer negocios con Colombia como consecuencia de la ruptura. Si nosotros no detenemos esta contaminación, de perpetuarse esta penetración guerrillera en nuestro suelo, no habrá espacio aquí para negocios entre los venezolanos tampoco.

No podemos ser cortos de visión como para no entender que si la revolución bolivariana ha provocado, como lo dice Colombia, un ambiente protector de la insurgencia terrorista, está dañando a Venezuela en su esencia de nación libre y pacífica. Nos inocula el pus del terrorismo y ahuyenta la inversión de propios y ajenos. Genera espacio para los criminales guerrilleros y narcotraficantes dentro de un conglomerado humano que no desea sino vivir en paz.