Hugo Chavez unbalances Chile's government
By Tony Pagliaro
22.06.06 | Hugo Chávez is working around-the-clock trying to have Venezuela elected as a Non Permanent Member of the United Nations’ Security Council. In the region, Venezuela is confronted with another candidate, from Central America: Guatemala.
Venezuela’s candidacy is already deeply dividing the region.
On the one hand, Argentina’s Néstor Kirchner moved very rapidly to support Venezuela. He did so even though Venezuela is a close ally of Iran and notwithstanding the fact that the Iranian theocracy was directly involved (in the 90’s) in the terrorist attacks against the Embassy of Israel in Buenos Aires, and against AMIA, a Jewish welfare institution. Said attacks caused hundreds of innocent victims and cannot be forgotten.
Risking offending the Argentine Jewish community, Néstor Kirchner aligned himself with Hugo Chávez, thus evidencing where he stands ideologically.
Yesterday, while visiting Spain, he openly supported Hugo Chávez’ regime, stating that it is the United States who is trying to characterize Chávez as “a little monster”, which is not the case.
On the other hand, Colombia, who suffers Hugo Chávez open support for the Marxist guerrillas operating in Colombia under FARC and ELN, has already endorsed Guatemala, as expected.
Chile is providing an example on how divisive can Chávez be.
Suspecting that President Michelle Bachelet is about to support Hugo Chávez, Soledad Alvear, a former political rival of President Bachelet and now the President of the Christian Democratic Party of Chile, is openly opposing a Chilean endorsement to Venezuela’s candidacy to the Security Council. In a frank and open manner, she just said: “We should look for a country that could adequately represent the region … which is not the case of Venezuela”, adding “Chávez has very strongly interfered in electoral processes in other countries. He has gone as far as, in the recent Peruvian campaign, disqualifying the man who has now been elected as Perú’s future president”.
Bachelet’s socialists are publicly inclined to endorse Chávez. If this happens it will be the first mayor disagreement -in decades- inside Chile’s governing coalition. This could only happen if Michelle Bachelet, as some fear, is very ideologically motivated and if Venezuela, notwithstanding the appearances, is as close to President Bachelet as one could suspect.
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