Chávez’s Blockbuster Proposal: Finally the Right Message for Peace

Chávez should call an immediate ceasefire and offer the FARC a safe haven in Venezuela -- President Hugo Chávez’s statement on Sunday regarding the increasingly unproductive and ill-focused guerrilla war being staged by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) could be a hugely positive step towards reframing the terms and goals of hemispheric relations in this era. But the full realization of this development’s potential benefits hinge upon the Bush administration’s willingness to engage in constructive diplomacy. It must not allow itself to be gripped by a radical ideology or drowned by repetitive propaganda that all along has characterized its foreign policy making style. For once, Secretary of State Rice should urge negotiations rather than enflame the two warring sides to seek far-fetched goals thus guaranteeing that the conflict will not be resolved.