iHaveNet.com
Region Ignoring Venezuela Coup Threats | Venezuela
Your Single Source to Current Events, News Analysis & Reviews.
  • HOME
  • WORLD
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Balkans
    • Caucasas
    • Central Asia
    • Eastern Europe
    • Europe
    • Indian Subcontinent
    • Latin America
    • Middle East
    • North Africa
    • Scandinavia
    • Southeast Asia
    • United Kingdom
    • United States
    • Argentina
    • Australia
    • Austria
    • Benelux
    • Brazil
    • Canada
    • China
    • France
    • Germany
    • Greece
    • Hungary
    • India
    • Indonesia
    • Ireland
    • Israel
    • Italy
    • Japan
    • Korea
    • Mexico
    • New Zealand
    • Pakistan
    • Philippines
    • Poland
    • Russia
    • South Africa
    • Spain
    • Taiwan
    • Turkey
    • United States
  • USA
    • ECONOMICS
    • EDUCATION
    • ENVIRONMENT
    • FOREIGN POLICY
    • POLITICS
    • OPINION
    • TRADE
    • Atlanta
    • Baltimore
    • Bay Area
    • Boston
    • Chicago
    • Cleveland
    • DC Area
    • Dallas
    • Denver
    • Detroit
    • Houston
    • Los Angeles
    • Miami
    • New York
    • Philadelphia
    • Phoenix
    • Pittsburgh
    • Portland
    • San Diego
    • Seattle
    • Silicon Valley
    • Saint Louis
    • Tampa
    • Twin Cities
  • BUSINESS
    • FEATURES
    • eBUSINESS
    • HUMAN RESOURCES
    • MANAGEMENT
    • MARKETING
    • ENTREPRENEUR
    • SMALL BUSINESS
    • STOCK MARKETS
    • Agriculture
    • Airline
    • Auto
    • Beverage
    • Biotech
    • Book
    • Broadcast
    • Cable
    • Chemical
    • Clothing
    • Construction
    • Defense
    • Durable
    • Engineering
    • Electronics
    • Firearms
    • Food
    • Gaming
    • Healthcare
    • Hospitality
    • Leisure
    • Logistics
    • Metals
    • Mining
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Newspaper
    • Nondurable
    • Oil & Gas
    • Packaging
    • Pharmaceutic
    • Plastics
    • Real Estate
    • Retail
    • Shipping
    • Sports
    • Steelmaking
    • Textiles
    • Tobacco
    • Transportation
    • Travel
    • Utilities
  • WEALTH
    • CAREERS
    • INVESTING
    • PERSONAL FINANCE
    • REAL ESTATE
    • MARKETS
    • BUSINESS
  • STOCKS
    • ECONOMY
    • EMERGING MARKETS
    • STOCKS
    • FED WATCH
    • TECH STOCKS
    • BIOTECHS
    • COMMODITIES
    • MUTUAL FUNDS / ETFs
    • MERGERS / ACQUISITIONS
    • IPOs
    • 3M (MMM)
    • AT&T (T)
    • AIG (AIG)
    • Alcoa (AA)
    • Altria (MO)
    • American Express (AXP)
    • Apple (AAPL)
    • Bank of America (BAC)
    • Boeing (BA)
    • Caterpillar (CAT)
    • Chevron (CVX)
    • Cisco (CSCO)
    • Citigroup (C)
    • Coca Cola (KO)
    • Dell (DELL)
    • DuPont (DD)
    • Eastman Kodak (EK)
    • ExxonMobil (XOM)
    • FedEx (FDX)
    • General Electric (GE)
    • General Motors (GM)
    • Google (GOOG)
    • Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)
    • Home Depot (HD)
    • Honeywell (HON)
    • IBM (IBM)
    • Intel (INTC)
    • Int'l Paper (IP)
    • JP Morgan Chase (JPM)
    • J & J (JNJ)
    • McDonalds (MCD)
    • Merck (MRK)
    • Microsoft (MSFT)
    • P & G (PG)
    • United Tech (UTX)
    • Wal-Mart (WMT)
    • Walt Disney (DIS)
  • TECH
    • ADVANCED
    • FEATURES
    • INTERNET
    • INTERNET FEATURES
    • CYBERCULTURE
    • eCOMMERCE
    • mp3
    • SECURITY
    • GAMES
    • HANDHELD
    • SOFTWARE
    • PERSONAL
    • WIRELESS
  • HEALTH
    • AGING
    • ALTERNATIVE
    • AILMENTS
    • DRUGS
    • FITNESS
    • GENETICS
    • CHILDREN'S
    • MEN'S
    • WOMEN'S
  • LIFESTYLE
    • AUTOS
    • HOBBIES
    • EDUCATION
    • FAMILY
    • FASHION
    • FOOD
    • HOME DECOR
    • RELATIONSHIPS
    • PARENTING
    • PETS
    • TRAVEL
    • WOMEN
  • ENTERTAINMENT
    • BOOKS
    • TELEVISION
    • MUSIC
    • THE ARTS
    • MOVIES
    • CULTURE
  • SPORTS
    • BASEBALL
    • BASKETBALL
    • COLLEGES
    • FOOTBALL
    • GOLF
    • HOCKEY
    • OLYMPICS
    • SOCCER
    • TENNIS
  • Subscribe to RSS Feeds EMAIL ALERT Subscriptions from iHaveNet.com RSS
    • RSS | Politics
    • RSS | Recipes
    • RSS | NFL Football
    • RSS | Movie Reviews
Region Ignoring Venezuela Coup Threats
Andres Oppenheimer

HOME > WORLD

 

What a sham! While the Venezuelan military announces it will not accept an opposition victory in the 2012 elections, thousands of people are dying in Mexico's drug wars and Haiti is suffering from a deadly cholera epidemic, the Organization of American States -- supposedly in charge of addressing the region's biggest problems -- is nowhere to be seen.

FULLY IMMERSED

Well, actually, let me correct that: An official Nov. 9 OAS statement informs us that the Washington-based 34-country organization's Permanent Council is fully immersed in a special session aimed at resolving a "disagreement" between Nicaragua and Costa Rica exacerbated by a demarcation error in a Google map of the border between the two countries.

The Google error, which has since been recognized and corrected by the Internet search giant, apparently prompted Nicaragua to dredge a portion of a border river claimed by Costa Rica. An act of "aggression," charged Costa Rica, and sent armed police, but, as far as we know, not a single shot has been fired in the dispute.

Meantime, arguably much more dramatic events are taking place all over the region.

Earlier this week, Maj. Gen. Henry Rangel Silva, head of the Venezuelan armed forces Operational Strategic Command, was quoted by the Caracas daily Ultimas Noticias as saying that "a hypothetical opposition government in 2012 would amount to selling away the country, and that's not going to be accepted by the National Armed Force."

Days earlier, President Hugo Chávez, who got fewer votes than the opposition in Venezuela's recent legislative elections, had warned that if an opposition candidate wins in 2012, there will be a "violent revolution" in Venezuela. Opposition leaders denounced Chávez's and Rangel Silva's statements as unconstitutional, and as pre-announcements of a self-coup.

In Mexico, more than 30,000 people have died in the war on drugs over the past four years. Many public figures, including former presidents Vicente Fox and Ernesto Zedillo, are calling for reassessment of regional anti-drug strategies.

In earthquake-battered Haiti, nearly 600 people have died and 9,123 have been hospitalized in recent weeks as a cholera epidemic sweeps the nation. The death toll is expected to keep rising.

"I have been watching the OAS for half a century, and there have been moments of great significance and moments of absolute silliness. This is certainly one of the latter," says Henry Raymont, a former New York Times correspondent and author of Troubled Neighbors, a book on U.S.-Latin American relations.

Where is the OAS? I asked OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza. To his credit, while stating that the OAS is very active in Haiti and has a duty to try to solve the Nicaragua-Costa Rica dispute, he didn't stay silent on the Venezuelan military's threat.

'UNACCEPTABLE'

Referring to Rangel Silva's statements, he told me that "the fact that an army commander threatens with an a priori insubordination is unacceptable. Venezuela's ruling civilian authority should correct that."

Insulza added that "I have recently denounced an intended coup in Ecuador because an armed (police) corps rose against the democratically-elected civilian authority. It would be inconsistent to remain silent when another armed corps threatens with an insubordination against a hypothetical future civilian authority."

Asked what he is going to do about Venezuela's military threat, Insulza said that for the OAS to move on the issue, it would have to be raised by a member country. "I hope that a member country will bring it up at the Permanent Council," he said.

My opinion: Insulza is right on this one. He can't do much unless member countries officially raise issues at the OAS. That hasn't happened yet: El Salvador, which chairs the Permanent Council, and the region's biggest countries are ignoring their OAS commitments to collectively defend democracy in the region.

And, to be fair, the OAS is not the only regional group to be looking the other way at the region's major problems. The Union of South American Nations, UNASUR, is even more nonexistent than the OAS. Its frequent summits are most often nothing but political tourism.

If OAS member countries don't denounce Venezuela's Chávez-backed military threat to ignore the results of the 2012 election, their claims to defend multilateralism and regional diplomacy will continue sounding like a joke.

 

Available at Amazon.com:

The Great Gamble

At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes

 

  • Latin American Leaders Could Have Learned From South Korea
  • Region Ignoring Venezuela Coup Threats
  • To Fight Corruption, Start Cutting Red Tape
  • New Congress Won't Lead to 'Fortress America'
  • Bachelet Faces Uphill Battle at U.N. Women
  • A New Global Player: Brazil's Far-Flung Agenda
  • Rise in Tourism to Miami May Signal Danger Ahead
  • Peru May Be Next Latin American Success Story
  • Nobel Winner Right About Risks of e-Books
  • Nestor Kirchner's Death May Mark End of an Era
  • Chavez a Pain for Spain
  • Chavez Lost Ground but Will Fight Back
  • Education Too Important to Be Left in Government Hands
  • Latin America In Denial About the Quality of Its Schools
  • Millennium Development Goals for Women Largely Unmet
  • North Korean Succession Plans Are Shrouded in Mystery
  • Rogue BFFs North Korea and Iran Make Quite a Pair
  • American Role in Israeli-Palestinian Talks Is a Problem
  • Iraq Reluctant to Pay Its Fair Share of Security Costs
  • Iran's 'Shaky' Ahmadinejad
  • United States Could Be Alone as Europe Turns Inward
  • Hugo Chavez May Lose Even if He Wins
  • Brazil Needs Dose of Constructive Paranoia
  • Latin American Commodity Exporters Need to Diversify
  • Stoned on Righteousness
  • Our Man in Moscow
  • Widening Divide in American-Chinese Commercial Interests
  • The New Old World Order
  • Global Human-Rights Cause Gets a Shot in the Arm
  • Obama's Foreign Policy Performance
  • New Russia Takes Root in Saint Petersburg and Moscow
  • Dismantling Worst-Case Proliferation Scenarios
  • A Numbers Game in the Middle East
  • Middle East Peace Talks: Here We Go Again
  • Obama and Clinton Revive Middle East Peace Talks
  • Guess Who's Coming to the Table
  • Iraq: Unanswered Policy Questions on U.S. Troops
  • Iraq: Implications of a Pointless War
  • Iraq: Book Review
  • Iraq: No Drums and No Bugles: None Dare Call It Victory
  • Pakistan's Leadership Sustains Flood Damage
  • A French Leftist Ritual Takes on Sarkozy
  • United States Losing Latin America Market Share
  • The Power of Being Multilingual
  • Chavez's Obsession With Past Turns Creepy and He's Not Alone
  • Obama Could Help Stop Mexico's Bloodshed
  • Mexico Needs U.S. Help But Not Troops
  • Mexico's Narco Problems Are Our Problems, and Vice Versa
  • Pro-Arizona Immigration Rhetoric Will Haunt Republicans
  • We Are Playing Fidel Castro's Game
  • Has the Time Come to Legalize Drugs?
  • Venezuela - Colombia Spat to Pass, Return
  • Hugo Chavez Might Keep Congress Despite Vote
  • Reform Movement in Cuba
  • Cuba's Prisoner Release No Sign of New Era
  • 'Maradona Syndrome' Bad for Argentina
  • Obama Wasting Opportunities in Latin America
  • Obama Immigration Speech All Words -- No Action
  • Obama Immigration Reform: Tell It to Us Straight
  • Obama's Unclear Path to Immigration Reform
  • Obama's Border Talk: Little Action
  • Mexico: The New Cocaine Cowboys
  • Under Santos Colombia Could Rise to the Next Level
  • Autocrats' Latest Weapon: Indirect Censorship
  • Latin America's Rich Should Be More Generous
  • Castrocare in Crisis
  • World Cup Soccer Can Have Political Impact
  • Gulf Oil Spill Could Bring U.S. and Cuba Closer
  • Colombia Vote Showed Social Media's Limits
  • New Political Winds in Latin America
  • Colombia: Moving Beyond 'Narco-Democracy'
  • Is Colombia's Front-runner Too Romantic? Not Really
  • Mexico has its own 'Arizona' problem
  • Brazil Diplomacy Needed Closer to Home
  • Hugo Chavez Ceding too Much Control to Cuba
  • Cuban Cardinal Says Too Little Too Late
  • The Starving Armenians
  • Arizona's Anti-Immigrant Law Will Spark Hispanic Exodus
  • Open Season on Latinos in Arizona
  • Obama Criticism of Arizona Immigration Law Ignores Federal Incompetence
  • Mexico's Big Hope: Get 5 Million U.S. Retirees
  • U.S. Latin Policy: Big Gestures and Little Substance
  • Latin America Must Diversify Trade With China
  • Cuba After Fidel and Raul Castro
  • Earthquake May Delay Chile's First World Goal

 

(C) 2010 Andres Oppenheimer

 

Search Powered By Google

Google Search   

Job & Career Search

career & job search                    job title, keywords, company, location

ADVERTISEMENT

Advertisement

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT

  • HOME
  • WORLD
  • USA
  • BUSINESS
  • WEALTH
  • STOCKS
  • TECH
  • HEALTH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • SPORTS

World - Region Ignoring Venezuela Coup Threats | Global Viewpoint

  • Services:
  • RSS Feeds
  • Shopping
  • Email Alerts
  • Site Map
  • Privacy