The ventriloquist and her dummy
What a disaster the recent UNASUR visit to Venezuela has become.
If you don’t know, UNASUR is the main international body for South American nations. A brainchild of Hugo Chávez and his allies, the body has struggled to gain international recognition. When they announced they were traveling to Venezuela to help foster dialogue, few in the country were optimistic.
The visit was one hot mess from beginning to end.
First off, the Colombian Foreign Minister – desperate to avoid angering the Venezuelan government, lest they derail a peace deal with the FARC that Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has wagered his legacy on – said that they would forego any attempt to “destabilize” Venezuela.
Because, y’know, nothing says “stability” than leaving things as they are: Ledezma and Leopoldo in jail, Maduro in Miraflores, and the people standing in line outside supermarkets. Oh, the sweet taste of “stability.”
Well, Ms. Holguín should know that in the opposition the number one goal is exactly to destabilize. The current situation is intolerable, and so is stability.
Then came Ernesto Samper a former Colombian President who was once denied a visa to the United States for his links to that country’s drug dealers. Mr. Samper said that some in the Venezuelan opposition wanted to overthrow the government, and … that in Venezuela there is a complete separation of powers.
Oh, and in the process, he let it slip that Parliamentary Elections in Venezuela would be held in September, something our CNE has yet to confirm or deny, or even clarify.
The UNASUR ministers then met with a portion of the opposition including Henrique Capriles. They reiterated the common position that there can be no dialogue without the prior release of political prisoners. MUD head honcho Chúo Torrealba was incensed at Unasur, tweeting sharp criticism at the group.
I’ve long argued that Venezuela needs foreign diplomatic intervention if it is to find a way out of this mess. Sadly, after UNASUR’s heavily political, partial visit – which Telesur labeled a visit “to investigate a coup plot against Venezuela” – the LAST thing Venezuelans want is for more foreigners to come into the country looking to strengthen the government.
UNASUR blew its credibility with this visit, and that is regrettable.
Caracas Chronicles 
No one knows “UNASUR” , a laughable international mess for South American under-developed clown nations. Another brainfart of Thugo Chábruto and his retarded petro-leaches, the corrupted body has zero international recognition.
FIXED.
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UNASUR once again has proven it was a still-birth of opportunistic SA nations whose main interest is to chulear Venezuela as long as Venezuela’s ignoramus leaders allow it.
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“Links to drug dealers” is an understatement. Samper’s presidential campaign was funded by cartels. The only reason he wasn’t impeached was Liberals dominated the Colombian Congress. A truly disgraceful guy.
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Very witty/well-written post, and “The Ventriloquist And Her Dummy” is brilliant!
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An absolutely disgraceful show.
I don’t expect any help from the region’s spineless foreign ministry’s. But I do expect them to at least refrain from making things worse.
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They are just leftists, son. You should like them. As they are people like you.
Or do you want RIGHT-WING people leading the region now?
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Chavismo killed the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Disgraceful.
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About the only good thing is that it appears that most of the responsible press in LatAm isn’t buying it.
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“UNASUR blew its credibility with this visit, and that is regrettable.”
Did those dollarsuckers ever had ANY credibility to begin?
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If you want to learn more about Samper and his “scandals” : http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proceso_8.000
Como decimos en Bogotá: ¡Qué oso!
What Samper is doing is a disgrace. I get Santos wanting to be “prudent” but this is crossing the line.
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Call me evil minded but most South American countries are seeing their economies slow down, even if they are still growing (but for Argentina and South America’s Somalia).
South American countries hardly produce complementary goods.
It is in the interests of their governments to keep Venezuela importing for a little bit.
Samper told us they will “help” Venezuela in the distribution of food. Samper’s statements (and those of the Colombian minister of Foreign Affairs) about division of powers in Venezuela etc might be good for the Colombian economy.
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Juan, I can find nothing to differ with in your post. So, I decided to nit-pic about another matter: Please see paragraph five of the following site: http://www.everythingenglishblog.com/?p=541
Now you owe me a Spanish lesson (for which my writing offers plenty of opportunities!)
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Hehehehe. I was going to say that I love the title, but you make a valid point.
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For a moment there, I thought the Carter Center was back in town.
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Altering slightly the old proverb: “if you have nothing useful to say, don’t say anything at all” (unless you are commenting on a blog ;-)). Holds in the case of this irresponsible, spineless diplomatic intersession on the part of UNASUR.
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Does anyone know a good internet site for daily monitoring of the Venezualan black market for VEF/USD? A local Russian businessmen got paid in bolivars for his exports to Venezuala (we are talking millions of bolivars) and now wants to exchange this sum of money to dollars or roubles. However, we need to know the black market exchange rate in real time, so that the deal is fair. We want to make the currency deal in Moscow, but tie it to the Venezualan black market rate.
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dolartoday.com
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It’s a shame our multilateral institutions are basically Presidential Guilds. OAS is the Panamerican Presidential Guild, UNASUR is the South American Presidential Guild and so on and so forth.
Everytime a President is challenged (see Fernando Lugo or Manuel Zelaya), they close ranks to defend them, but everytime a president steps on the parliament or the courts, those are internal affairs.
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