Sticks and Stones

Today, Venezuela increased the size of the military force on the Colombian border in an effort to show President Uribe of Colombia that President Chavez is tough, and means business.

From the International Herald Tribune:

At a morning news conference, the Venezuelan defense minister, Gustavo Rangel, gave fresh details of the forces his country was deploying, saying 10 battalions of troops were being put in place. On Tuesday, Venezuelan television broadcast images of tank battalions heading to the border.

What Chavez didn’t realize is that the world now thinks of him as a posturing, menacing bully who is throwing a tantrum over an issue that is irrelevant to his country.

Chavez claims he acted in the interest of defending Venezuela from potential Colombian incursions, even though the entire episode was conducted in a jungle along the Colombian and Ecuadorian border, a jungle which does not have a line cutting through it and is totally lacking in border security, much to the chagrin of Colombia because Ecuador harbours FARC terrorists who move freely across the Amazon into Colombia. The real reason for this audacious force deployment is sheer braggadocio. And it comes at a time when the famously socialist politics of South America lacks a clear, distinct leader.

CIA’s World Factbook reveals that Colombia’s armed forced are technologically and numerically superior to Venezuela’s military, which makes Chavez’s posturing breathtakingly stupid. Not only is he endangering the lives of his soldiers, he is ruffling up South American politics needlessly.

From the Washington Post:

This remarkable success [Sticks and Stones : referring to the assassination of Reyes] has been overshadowed by the extraordinary reaction of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who has been revealed as an explicit supporter and possible financier of the FARC. Mr. Chávez openly mourned the death of Mr. Reyes and made a show of ordering Venezuelan troops to the border with Colombia while loudly warning that war was possible.

At a time when the continent needs to build on its successes and work out several current issues, including deforestation in Brazil, Argentina’s energy problems , and growing political tensions, Chavez’s foolhardy actions distract the the leaders of South America from addressing the real issues they face.

With Fidel Castro gone as the figurehead of South American politics, Hugo Chavez is attempting to step up into the now vacated position. To do this he needs a scapegoat, preferably one easily denounced for differing from the socialist norm popular across the continent. He needs a scapegoat that is successful despite choosing not to act in accordance with Fidel Castro. He needs a scapegoat with friendly relations with his enemies.

From the New York Times:

Venezuela’s mobilization drew a rebuke from the Bush administration, which has portrayed Colombia as an ally in need of a trade deal delayed because of concerns over killings of Colombian trade union officials.“We do think it’s curious that a country such as Venezuela would be raising the specter of military action against a country who was defending itself against terrorism,” said Dana Perino, the White House spokeswoman. “I think that says a lot about Venezuela.”

He needs Colombia, a nation struggling to combat vicious and illegal terrorism from FARC, a nation expertly steered by an internationally lauded Harvard-educated President towards successful democracy and capitalism. He needs to vilify Colombia, to threaten it with unfeasible military action, so as to cement his role as the figurehead of socialist South America. To do so, he will trample all over Colombia, he will denounce it as an American ally (which in South America appears to be a bad thing, as it is for Israel in the eyes of nearly all of the Middle East), and he will work to undermine its successes.

Reyes was a vicious terrorist whose actions within FARC threatened the safety of Colombians. It seems entirely irrelevant to Chavez that the assassination of Reyes was a very good thing. But for Chavez, who illegally supported FARC in its efforts to overthrow the legitimate government of Colombia, the assassination of Reyes was not a good thing, because the operation led to the discovery of a laptop linking Chavez directly to FARC.

From the Wall Street Journal:

What may really have upset Mr. Chávez is the capture of Reyes’s laptop. According to Colombia’s top police official, General Oscar Naranjo, the computer contains evidence supporting the claim that the FARC is working with Mr. Chávez. General Naranjo said Monday that Reyes’s laptop records showed that Venezuela may have paid $300 million to the FARC in exchange for its recent release of six civilian hostages. Mr. Chávez had spun those releases as a triumph of his personal mediation.The general added that the military found a thank-you note from Mr. Chávez to the FARC for some $150,000 that the rebels had sent him when he was in prison for his attempted coup d’etat in 1992.

As Fidel Castro exits, a new demon enters: Hugo Chavez. Venezuela’s rejection of his constitutional alterations is one hopeful sign. All of us at Sticks and Stones want to see more hopeful signs from democratic Venezuela, before Chavez eradicates democracy itself.