It seems that even after
leaving office, Colombian ex-President Alvaro Uribe has held on to his famous grudge against Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Citing an El Tiempo article (which
doesn’t appear to be online), El Universal reports
that the former Colombian leader will attempt to influence the upcoming
elections in Venezuela this October.
Uribe is allegedly planning on campaigning against Chavez in a series of rallies to be held in three
Colombian cities on the border with Venezuela: Maicao, Cucuta and Arauca. The
campaign will likely have only a symbolic effect on elections, as the number of
Venezuelans living on the Colombian side of the border is relatively small.
While no hard figures on the number of Venezuelans living in Colombia are
available, some estimates
put the total at no more than 40,000, an almost negligible number considering
the size of the Venezuelan electorate.
If anything, the
rallies may actually hurt opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski. The Chavez
administration has occasionally portrayed him as a tool of Uribe, claiming that
the former Colombian leader is building a
region-wide front of politicians in opposition to Chavez. While the election will likely mostly focus on
the economy and security, a particularly inflammatory anti-Chavez campaign by
Uribe could play into this narrative.
Whatever the effect of the
rallies, they are a clear indicator that the sour relationship between the two
leaders hasn’t improved with time. Tensions have been high between them since Uribe
began to accuse Venezuela of harboring FARC guerrillas in the mid-2000s, and
famously came to a head in 2010 when the two engaged in a shouting
match at a summit designed to promote regional cooperation.
News Briefs
·
In the first visit to Brazil by a US defense
secretary in seven years, Leon Panetta yesterday pushed Brazil to purchase $4
billion worth of fighter jets, reports the New
York Times. As the AP notes, he praised Brazil’s emergence
as a world power and characterized the deal as part of a deepening partnership
between the two countries.
·
The LA Times’ World
Now Blog highlights outgoing Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s efforts to
take credit for the dramatic reduction in migrants to the US. Although Calderon
claims the drop is due to increased development in Mexico, experts believe it
has much more to do with the slow economic recovery in the US.
·
The AP has an interesting piece on a land
conflict in Mexico’s largest urban park, Guadalajara’s Bosque de la
Primavera. Officials have been battling a fire in the park since last weekend,
and believe it was set by squatters seeking to take over park land, although
the article also notes that real estate companies in the area have an interest
in clearing land for development.
·
Chile’s student movement held a massive march
yesterday, with organizers reporting that more than 50,000 participated,
according to El
Ciudadano. The BBC points
out that President Sebastian Pinera announced new measures to reform education
on Wednesday, but these have been rejected by the movement.
·
A week after former Venezuelan Supreme Court
Justice Eladio Aponte accused the Chavez government of asking him to manipulate
rulings last week, alleged Venezuelan drug kingpin Walid Makled has claimed
that he personally paid
Aponte thousands of dollars.
·
The
Wall Street Journal with a look at Chavez’s trademark use of Twitter to
communicate with his supporters.
·
After 15 hours of debate, the Argentine Senate has
voted to approve President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s controversial
plan to nationalize the YPF oil company. The BBC notes
that the move is extremely popular in the country, and the bill will now go to
the country’s lower house.
·
The Washington
Post covers the effect that the move has had on the oil market, and outlines
concerns over the move could having a negative impact on investment in the
country.
·
Cuban-American Senator (and Mitt Romney’s
potential running mate) Marco Rubio had an
op-ed in yesterday’s LA Times in which he advocates a much more aggressive US
policy towards Latin America based on promoting democracy, free trade, security
and US energy interests.
·
CNN
reports on the creative means by which Cuban artists are finding support
online, mostly through a crowd-funding website called Yagruma.org
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