The Lessons Behind the Real or Purported Chávez Reconciliation With Uribe

Certainly, regardless of the interpretations that can be given to the meeting of Alvaro Uribe and Hugo Chávez in Venezuelan territory, it is evident that this an exceptionally important event that rises above what, in a similar situation, would be expected after the attacks made by Chávez against Uribe recently. However, the meeting resulted in a sort of “let bygones be bygones” or, as Chávez himself said, “turning the page”, leaving behind all the violent insults of the Venezuelan ruler against the Colombian, against that Alvaro Uribe that has 91% of popular support in Colombia. In a way, thus, the violent insults that Chávez hurled against Uribe several times also constitute an attack against that ninety-one percent of support that Uribe enjoys. The statements made by Chávez standing with President Uribe before the press and which were broadcast on television, were marked by a tone and concepts that, for the time being, depending on future happenings, imply rectifications that could be considered honoring for President Uribe as well as for Chávez. Let us hope that this experience will serve to check the impulses of President Chávez not only against Uribe but also against the other rulers of the world who do not share his ideas and behavior. In other words, that within the diplomatic norms and the respect due to rulers of other countries with whom official relations are maintained, there be no repeat of the concepts, words and threats, especially not against neighboring countries. It should be remembered that in this case Chávez, on television, ordered his Minister of Defense to send eight battalions to the border with Colombia, because of a conflict between the governments of Bogotá and Quito, when Rafael Correa also insulted Alvaro Uribe because of the attack on a camp of the FARC terrorist guerrillas in Ecuadorian territory near the Colombian border. In the recent history of inter-American politics, this crisis is marked with extremely deplorable characteristics that endanger the security and the democracy of the Latin American countries. And this also poses threats and dangers for Ibero-American solidarity.