Anti-Chavez axis emerging in Latin America

The rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages who had been held for years by FARC guerrillas marks more than a turning point in Colombia's long war against its drug-running, Marxist guerrillas. It also confirms the emergence of a new troika of Latin American leaders — Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Mexican President Felipe Calderon — who are set on finishing off Latin America's destabilizing drug cartels and guerrilla movements, as well as isolating the region's demagogic upstart, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Uribe's status as one of Latin America's historic leaders was assured even before the hostage rescue. Uribe won an unprecedented re-election two years ago with an absolute majority in the first round of the vote. But it is Uribe's resolve not to negotiate with FARC over kidnappings, and instead to pursue relentlessly the armed insurgency that murdered his father that has defined Uribe's presidency. In the process, he transformed a country that was in the grip of drug barons and on the verge of becoming a failed state. The professionalism of Colombia's armed forces, coupled with Uribe's popularity and a growing economy, has delivered, for the first time in three decades, normality to Colombia's cities and, increasingly, peace and the rule of law to much of its vast jungle regions. Uribe's relentlessness has brought on waves of defections from FARC, which is now down to 9,000 guerrillas from a peak of 16,000 in 2001. Indeed, many FARC defectors now prefer to fight for their cause at the ballot box under the new leftwing Polo Alternativo Democratico.