Via the BBC: Chavez urges unity after summit

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said the “happy” end to the regional crisis with Colombia should boost unity in Latin America.

“This summit was a gift from God,” he was quoted by Reuters as saying after shaking hands with his Colombian and Ecuadorean counterparts at a summit.

I was always of the opinion that this was going to blow over, but had gotten to the point where I figured that it would drag on for a a while.

Still, it is almost chuckle-inducing that we go from threats of war, rhetoric that includes charges of genocide and war crimes, to a handshake and things like:

“We are all happy,” Mr Chavez said afterwards.

“Peace! We must unite and integrate.”

Regardless of the happy talk, there are still serious issues here, such as the degree to which the Ecuadorans and Venezuelans are tolerating a FARC
presence in their countries and the charges of direct ties. Ecuador’s Correa explained such contact as follows:

He admitted there had been communications with Farc, but only because his government was trying to secure the release of hostages held by the rebels, including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

Meanwhile, the Colombian raid that started this has taken on more complexity:

It has now emerged that four Mexicans may have been killed in the raid.

Mexico has ordered an investigation, and Ecuador has yet to confirm the identity of those killed last Saturday.

A fifth member of the Mexican group - who were all students - is recovering in a hospital in Ecuador’s capital, Quito.

At the end of the day, however, the BBC story rightly notes:

The BBC’s Jeremy McDermott says President Uribe’s huge gamble in ordering the air strike that killed Reyes appears to have paid off.

The Reyes killing was a definite blow to the FARC and now there are reports that another member of the groups’ secretariat has been killed as well:

Ivan Rios - the youngest in the seven-member Farc secretariat - was killed by his own men in the province of Caldas, said Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos. It was not clear why he was killed.