Quoth the Raven
March 7th, 2008In South America, cooler heads, common sense and Gregory Pratt’s prediction prevail:
South American presidents have reached an uneasy compromise to resolve a crisis triggered by Colombia’s military raid in Ecuador, stepping back from a week of insults, troop movements and talk of war. After an emotional debate at the 20-nation Rio Group summit in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, the presidents of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador offered one another stiff handshakes and joined other Latin American presidents in approving a declaration resolving to work for a peaceful end to the crisis.
The statement notes that Colombian president Alvaro Uribe apologised for the March 1 raid that killed 25 people including a senior rebel commander, and pledged not to violate another nation’s sovereignty again. But it also committed all the countries to fight threats to national stability from “irregular or criminal groups”, a clear reference to conservative Colombia’s accusation that its two left-wing neighbours have ties to Colombian rebels.
We were discussing this in my international relations class and I was even more forceful there on the subject. It was all saber-rattling in the heat of the moment and nothing more.