Hugo Chavez extends an olive branch to JM Santos

Was just watching a live broadcast of Chavez speaking to his followers at a soccer stadium.

This is what you will read in tomorrow's news dispatches:

-- Chavez told Santos he is willing to "turn the page." But he insisted that it would be within the framework of "total respect" for Venezuela, a slam at the uribitos.

-- Chavez responded to Santos' brushing off all mediation by other Latin American leaders by saying that he is willing to have a face-to-face meeting.

-- The foreign minister of Venezuela, Maduro, and Colombia, Maria Angelica Holguin, will meet tomorrow in Bogota to see if a Santos/Chavez meeting can be arranged. Chavez sent Maduro to the inauguration, another slap at alvarito.

-- Chavez said the meeting with Santos should be as soon as possible, in three or four days.

-- If Santos is too busy (what with the inauguration and other obligations) Chavez said he was WILLING TO TRAVEL TO BOGOTA. Chavez said he expected a reply maybe tomorrow.

-- Chavez said he and Santos would explore how to "reconstruct what uribe has destroyed."

-- Chavez then issued a warning; at the "first sign" of the new Colombian administration's disrespect to Venezuela, all would come tumbling down. By disrespect, Chavez said that included any false claim that Venezuela harbors Colombian terrorists or supports terrorism (the claims uribito made at the OAS). That would finish off immediately any negotiations.

-- Chavez was very tough on uribito, saying he had sold out and had been a lackey of the empire.

All of the above and more should be in the Spanish media tonight online and maybe in the English-language agencies by tomorrow.

This is just a heads-up from the live broadcast then ended a few minutes ago.






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I like ese bocon. He knows exactly what is coming down the pike and he walks right up to it.

Caught his speech live on Telesur and it was fun listening to him rant.

But despite the bombastic tone, he deftly made the next diplomatic move up to Santos. Juan Manuel will have to reply one way or the other because if not, Hugo wins the first round.

Off Topic -- Conoces un tal Emilio Ferrari de San Fran.? :-)

:)

Spanish

http://www.telesurtv.net/noticias/secciones/nota/76276-NN/chavez-anuncia-disposicion-de-reunirse-lo-mas-pronto-con-santos-para-mejorar-relaciones/
Check out the video at the top right of the screen (Hugo talking).

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Correa has announced that the new Santos government had given him ONE of the infamous computers found at the bombed-out camp. He used the word computer, but the article also uses the word for hard drive. Rafa was in Bogota for the inauguration.

http://www.telesurtv.net/noticias/secciones/nota/76275-NN/gobierno-de-colombia-entrego-ordenadores-de-raul-reyes-a-presidente-correa/


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OT-- Have always dreamed of having one of those fancy, very expensive, Italian-made "Smith" sports cars. :toast:

:(

He made a very good point about withstanding the years long provocations of the former government. Uribe failed to provoke him.

Colombia's new leader offers talks to Venezuela, FARC
NINA NEGRON
August 8, 2010 - 12:09PM

Juan Manuel Santos was sworn in as Colombia's new president and immediately offered talks to heal a diplomatic rift with Venezuela, and to end 40 years of FARC rebel warfare provided they first disarm.

Santos, 58, is the chosen successor of conservative President Alvaro Uribe, who leaves office with an 80-percent approval rating after a major crackdown on rebel violence and an adversarial relation with leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"I prefer a frank and direct dialogue (with Venezuela), hopefully as soon as possible," Santos said after thanking countries who offered mediation in the row with Caracas over Uribe's accusations that FARC rebels have found safe haven in Venezuela.

And in Caracas, Hugo Chavez said he was ready "to turn the page," and work with Santos. He said he asked his top diplomat to set up a meeting with Santos.

More:
http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-world/colombias-new-leader-offers-talks-to-venezuela-farc-20100808-11pwm.html

at Hugo Chavez.

We know Chavez isn't going to do it: it's always been Colombia.

Anyone willing to bet one week? I'm betting it could happen within two weeks.

Thanks for passing on the content of what Chavez said Saturday night.

here in spain we read in the papers all the time about this Chavez, his style is very coarse, hurling insults left and right, without any class or sense of propriety. In 1981, the military dictatorship ruling Argentina with an iron fist, found itself in a difficult situation, they were not liked, and the economy was crumbling. This led them to invade the Malvinas, which returned them to the popularity they desired - for a little bit, until the lost the war, and their hold on power. I think the Chavez technique is similar, to create a conflict with Colombia to evade the serious difficulties facing Venezuela, which is now reported to have high inflation and also a very poor economy. This is really deadly, because economic crisis is usually tied to almost no inflation. At least, if you have little money, you don't see the prices go up and up. But in Venezuela, they have the problem with no money, and also the problem with the huge inflation. This is made even worse by the food the government decided to buy, which was rotten. This rotten food problem is causing the government a lot of pain. My theory is a lot of this fight with Colombia is the idea of the Venezuelans, who want to see if the poor people will blame the rotten food on a war with Colombia.

to attempt to deceive the public, and trick them into believing dirty, dishonest, shabby lies about leftists. It has been going on, and it only draws attention to the low nature of people who have such little regard for life, for good people that they would spend their time attempting to take advantage of people who may not know as much as they should yet, to play on their lower natures, use fear, hatred to attempt to turn people against strangers of whom they know very little.

I'm certain you "in Spain" would never stoop that low.

I live in Alicante. Come visit our beach, it's very nice. And we have almost zero crime, unlike the USA. This is why Mrs Obama is visiting, although I should add Alicante is much better than Torremolinos, which is decadent and too hot.

We see the coverage about Latin America here, and it is evident this man, Chavez, likes to use coarse language. He likes to insult others on TV, using words like "pendejo", and other such indignities. This is not something a president should do. And this is why the King told him to shut up, the man is too full of his own hot air.

And by the way, I am a supporter of the Socialist party, and I read El Pais, which around here makes me a leftist. Maybe you just want to retain the right to designate who is leftist according to your own ideas?

But that is not what I most care about in politicians.

I would love to visit your beach.
:hi:

:rofl:

A President who knows how to perform his job does not use coarse language in public. Diplomacy is required and this something Mr Chavez doesn't have. I think he is arrogant, and also may be a man with psychologic problems. This poor performance is reflected in his failures, which seem to be turning into a mountain of failures. For example, I read in the newspaper about the crime rate in Venezuela, which is very very high, and impacts the poor in a very bad way. The lack of action to control crime is clear evidence of poor government focus. The use of coarse language, while per se my not be so bad, gives the people around him the sense that this regime is more about ganster-like behavior, rather than the proper behavior of disciplined people who act to benefit the population in all the relevant aspects.

I think Mr Chavez realizes this mountain of failures he has created for himself is a very serious problem and blocks his aims. It is hard to tell what the aims are, when the man does things in such an erratic fashion, but hopefully the problems will change his behavior. He is wise to treat Mr Santos carefully, and agree to proceed in an informal alliance with Colombia. This is a good move, because the FARC, as exponents of violence and corrupting drug trade, must be eliminated. Once they are gone, then the two countries can proceed in a brotherly way to develop their respective societies, using different methods, but without the hostility we see in the last month.

as we do here.

No, Chavez did not start this. But thanks for playing!

You see, there is a big difference, between the press and the President. The President represents the nation, and should behave with style and good manners. This projects the proper image. Mr Chavez projects a bad image, that of a very coarse and ill-educated, bad tempered autocrat who fails to engage his interlocutor. This of course damages his own reputation. When one reads about all the problems he has, with rotten food and a bad economy, high crime, and all those problems, and we also see the bad manners, we think the man is more clown than leader.

watch for Chavez to blame Colombia for something

Chavez's REPLY will be played up prominently, making it seem like Chavez is causing trouble again.

That's more how the design of these things goes at Langley.

Remember the ol' miracle laptop routine. Uribe asks Chavez to negotiate with the FARC for hostage releases. On the eve of Chavez's first negotiated hostage releases, Uribe pulls the rug out--publicly rescinds the request--then the Colombia military shoots at the hostages, as they are in route to their freedom. On top of this, a few months later, the U.S./Colombia drops ten 500 lb U.S. "smart bombs" on the FARC's hostage release negotiator, at his camp just inside Ecuador's border, blowing him and 24 other sleeping people to smithereens, and claims that they seized his in-tact laptop (later, laptopS) from the bombed out site, and that, in it, is "evidence" that Chavez and Correa were helping the FARC to get a "dirty bomb" and other wild allegations. But the part that stuck out, to me, was their accusation that Chavez had contacts with the FARC! Did they not just ASK him to? Yes. Does that matter? No. It flows into the corpo-fascist 'news' river of forgetfulness.

I DO NOT LIKE THIS SET-UP--Santos enticing Chavez to a meeting without a mediator such as Lula da Silva in the context of UNASUR. Chavez has good advisors and good intelligence, and he is quite smart and I think deeply committed to peace. But he is not without hubris. For instance, he thought he could influence Uribe against "the Yanquis," and I think underestimated the hold that the Yanquis had on Uribe. (He thus opened himself to the above -described treachery.) He seems to be trying to do the same thing with Santos--appeal to his Latin American loyalty. Santos is a far more dangerous man than Uribe, in my opinion. And he has zero, zip, NO such loyalty, whereas Uribe was a bit torn. For instance, amidst the uproar about the secretly negotiated U.S./Colombia military agreement, Uribe went on a tour of leaders in the region, trying to explain himself--and, an even more telling for instance, when the U.S./Colombia bombed Ecuador, Uribe eventually apologized, and promised that Colombia would never do such a thing again--but Santos stated publicly, at the time, that he would not hesitate to do it again. A third: when a plot to assassinate Chavez that was hatched within the Colombian military was exposed, Uribe apologized to Chavez (in a four hour meeting). Santos would never apologize, and now, with full control of the state security apparatus as well as the military, he would make sure that it wasn't exposed and that it achieved its end.

This makeover of Santos (did they send him to "Smile School" or what?) from the cold-blooded manager of the murders of thousands of civilians into the anti-Uribe, promising a better Colombia (which currently holds the second worst human rights record on earth) gives me the willies. It would not surprise me AT ALL if the next thing we hear is that Chavez's plane has crashed into a Colombian mountain, or that Colombia has invaded Venezuela, "in pursuit of the FARC," and Oil War II has commenced.

I'm NOT predicting these things in the near future. I'm saying I would not be surprised. That's what I think of Santos, and of the multinationals and war profiteers who are running things here, and there. Uribe was conflicted. Santos is not conflicted. Uribe was "erratic" (as The Economist recently described him, without explanation), apologizing one moment and stabbing Chavez in the back the next. Santos is not "erratic." He and his allies in Washington have a plan. He intends to carry it out. He will be ruthless in doing so.

As I said, I don't like the set-up. It may be a shrewd move by Chavez to agree to no mediators. It was MOST CERTAINLY a shrewd move by Santos to set these terms for discussion. And it may turn out to be foolish hubris on Chavez's part, even disastrous in minor ways or major ways. Only time will tell. But I think that Chavez has a bit too much of the "mano-a-mano" mentality--an attitude of manliness that presumes honor in the other party. He seems very resilient, as to finding out otherwise. I always admired his efforts with Uribe. He went the extra mile on numerous occasions. Is it possible to strike a mutually beneficial deal with a man like Santos? Maybe, in the short term, if that is the strategy designed in Washington. In the long term, Santos will not hesitate to try to crush Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution and the people of Venezuela with him. The best chance to avert a bad outcome is the collective strength and will of the people of Latin America, as expressed in their various leaders, and in their new regional organizations, especially UNASUR (which, in its very first days, averted a bad outcome in Bolivia). Chavez cannot do it alone. He seems to realize this, most of the time. He has certainly been the most passionate advocate of collective action, unity and cooperation. Is he making an ego mistake in this instance, taking on this new, smiling Santos alone, with the U.S. war machine bristling in the background, like a dark halo around that pasted-on smile?

against him, supported his forceable removal, kidnapping, the complete theft of the government for two days, the removal of the Supreme Court, the dissolution of the National Assembly, the termination of the Venezuelan constitution, and the process of o hunting down, arresting, imprisoning Chavez' cabinet members, sending others into hiding, and that he wanted to say it face to face, the old fart was able to make Chavez the target, and sidestep the reality of his charges which VALID and needed to be aired publicly. Spain needed to be outed on its position on that filthy coup.

Instead the idiot was able to escape and turn the tables on Chavez. Our own corporate media set up a howl, and there was a feeding frenzy, just as there was when Howard Dean's microphone was isolated by some right-wing engineer, who used the distortion, circulated it so it was played over and over and over while Dean was ridiculed, and was e ventually defeated by vicious, below-the-belt, dirty fighters who knew Dean was, at the time, riding the crest of ENORMOUS popularity with the public.

Just get the ball to the right-wing controlled media and they'll do the rest, completely run amock with a story, and turn it around so the good people are portrayed as idiots, or insane, and the slimeballs who know how to play to the spinners feed them their material.

That's o.k., the clean citizens, the courageous, decent ones are STILL going to win, in the end.

Santos has the most sinister face I've seen on a politician. It's astonishing. It would be impossible to trust someone like him, considering what has happened in Colombia under his work as "Defense" Minister.

It's easy to imagine Santos could bait Chavez, and it would be Chavez' response upon which the "jounalists" will pounce with glee. True!

For many reasons. But Castro thinks the Iranians have nuclear weapons, and this is not true. He is a little old, I think.

Santa Marta to host Santos-Chavez summit .
Monday, 09 August 2010 11:07 Adriaan Alsema

The meeting scheduled between Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez will not be held in Bogota, but in the Caribbean town of Santa Marta.

According to Colombian media, the newly sworn-in Santos hopes "that in this meeting we can draw conclusions that lead to the normalization of relations between the two countries."

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro announced the summit on Sunday, the day after Santos' inauguration.

Following claims made in late July by former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe that Venezuela is harboring Colombian guerrillas of the FARC and ELN, Chavez cut all diplomatic ties and vowed to further clamp down on trade between the two neighbors.

Before assuming the presidency Santos said he would seek to normalize relations with Colombia's socialist neighbor.


http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/11246-santos-chavez-summit-to-be-in-santa-marta.html

In brief remarks on the tarmac, Santos pledged to do everything possible to better relations with Venezuela, diplomatically and commercially.

Towards the end, he said there was optimism but not too many expectations. Earlier his foreign minister, Maria Angelica Holguin, had expressed the same, saying it was not reasonable to expect a first meeting to resolve all the differences.

Telesur covered Santos' arrival live.

Chavez's arrival appears imminent.

live on telesur

http://www.telesurtv.net/noticias/canal/senalenvivo.php

San Salvador, Aug 12 (Prensa Latina) The Salvadoran government today welcomed the restoration of diplomatic relations between Colombia and Venezuela, and the decision of both countries to promote joint programs in various fields.

"The news of the restoration reiterates the power of dialogue between sister nations and demonstrates the good will and openness of both governments to solve their differences," said a Foreign Ministry statement.

The day before, presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia agreed to resume the links interrupted 19 days ago and to promote integration for the benefit of both peoples, particularly in border areas.

Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez applauded the decision by the two countries to set up five working binational commissions related to commercial matters, economic complementation, social investment, infrastructure and security.

http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=212479&Itemid=1