For Leaders of Venezuela and Colombia, Common Ground

December 18, 2005
For Leaders of Venezuela and Colombia, Common Ground
By Chris Kraul, Times Staff Writer


SANTA MARTA, Colombia — After a near breach in relations earlier this year, mutual necessity and shared traditions have drawn Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Colombian leader Alvaro Uribe back together.

On Saturday, the two leaders hugged, called each other "brother" and, as a youth orchestra from Venezuela played classical tunes, chatted amiably in the shade of an enormous ceiba tree near the spot where Latin American independence leader Simon Bolivar died in 1830.
(snip)

Uribe wants continued access to Venezuela's markets (the second-largest destination for Colombian goods after the U.S.) as well as the continued goodwill of its government toward the estimated 1 million Colombians living and working there.

For Chavez, good relations with Colombia are essential because he has ambitious plans to export crude oil to Central America and China, and a pipeline to the Pacific would have to run through Colombia. In a brief interview, Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said the two countries were moving forward on such a plan.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-vzcol18dec18,1,1160447.story?coll=la-headlines-world
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I guess Uribe found out that he cannot be in bad terms with Chavez...

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=47465

Colombian President confirms plan to assassinate Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias took place in Bogota...

Aljazeera.net: Former Venezuelan soldiers plotted against the government of Hugo Chavez at a Colombian military building, according to the Colombian President Alvaro Uribe who made the disclosure on Saturday at Santa Marta in Colombia, where he is meeting President Chavez, and after analyzing documents furnished by the Venezuelan leader.

Uribe said: "The Venezuelan soldiers who are in Bogota went to a building to meet with members of the Colombian military. President Chavez gave us these documents ... we analyzed them and, this morning, I said to President Chavez, 'I must tell you the truth: this is a building of Colombia's public forces.'"



Uribe said that intelligence efforts against the Venezuelan government were conducted in the building, and took full responsibility for the affair.

The two Presidents met on Saturday for six hours in a climate of unusual goodwill to discuss the purported Bogota-based conspiracy against the Venezuelan president, which Chavez first disclosed to the Colombian president during a meeting in Venezuela last month...

Sure. This guy must hold the record for assassination attempts on a public official. I guess he needs to cry wolf once a week to stay in the limelight. What an ego!

No, that honor belongs to Castro.

:eyes:

Terra alert! Terra alert! So what if Uribe confirmed it? Does that make it true?

Is this another one of those "unless you are a Hugo bootlicker, you are a Freeper" insinuations?

...then, y'know, I don't care what it calls itself.

Or will you not beliieve a conviction proves it unless there's a confession? Or would you not even believe a confession?

that it has become quite boring. It will take much more than a single confirmation to convince me. Next week we'll hear about another attempt, and then the following week, another, and..... Yawn.

That movie was NOT boring.

The very opposite of boring.

find it here: chomskytorrents.org

That movie was NOT boring.

And then there's Goulart in Brazil and Ibarra in Ecuador, and then there's El Savador in '72 and '84, Nicaragua, Grenada, Honduras, Guatemala.

It's very unlikely that the Keynesians who represent the powerless and who want to build real infrastructure for their citizens in South and Central America are ever resisted by the powerful, isn't it.

who ran to throw his spindly arms around Pedro Carmona, the aspiring Coup President for a Day of Venezuela, told the ELECTED Venezuelan Vice President Rangel that he was aware of a plan to assassinate Hugo Chavez. This was confirmed by the next ambassador, William Brownfield.

Hardly a figment of Hugo Chavez's imagination, right?

The D.U. visitors who refuse to admit the actual history of U.S. right-wing Presidents' lethal agression in this hemisphere are only embarrassing themselves. There are only facts to counter their delusional claims and charges.

Keep planning to kill Chavez, Chavez will keep exposing them, and then they can say Chavez is a paranoid dictator commie etc...

The U.S.-serving, self-rewarding Venezuelan oligarchy assumed it would control Venezuela perpetually. The tax deals they had worked out with mega-companies in the States were APPALLING.

Now that the current Venezuelan government is starting to adjust the tax levels to more balanced proportions, the companies are being exposed for the rip off operations they were running in the past, and it's costing them tons. They all want it back the way it was, with control of the entire country in the hands of a very small group. With any luck, those days are gone.

Chavez is most likely correct.

We have powerbrokers in this country who don't give a second thought to spending millions of dollars to overthrow foreign governments if they think they can profit from it.

confirms what you and your buddies have been saying is bullshit. I'll say yes. Many of us have been following this story for a while. So we know what's up.