Colombia and Honduras: Learning to Play By Chavez Rules
Ray Walser /
August 28 is a significant date for the Western Hemisphere. Colombia and Honduras will stand again in the limelight. They are there primarily thanks to Venezuela’s authoritarian-populist Hugo Chavez, a man who increasingly crafts the rules for setting Latin America’s political and security agenda.
In Bariloche, Argentina, leaders representing the 12 members of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) will debate a U.S.-Colombian decision to utilize airfields in Colombia for anti-drug operations. Chavez wants UNASUR to condemn the U.S. and Colombia’s President Uribe for an agreement that will allow U.S. access to air fields in Colombia. He wants to put Colombia and the U.S. in the dock and turn a reasonable modification of U.S. counter-drug efforts into a full blown South American security crisis. (more…)