– Political Fissures in the Latin American continent

The recently concluded Summit of Americas brought forth more fissures within the Latin American continent than were earlier visible to the layman’s eyes! Hugo Chavez – that joker from Venezuela – and Fox – the Mexican Prez – are having a war of words! Here is the lowdown:

Fallout from the recent Summit of the Americas in Argentina seems to have affected diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Mexico more than between Venezuela and the U.S. as was generally anticipated. And, things took a rather nasty and puerile turn last week when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Mexican President Vicente Fox “a puppy of the [American] empire” for supporting the U.S. inspired Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) draft agreement. (One wonders what diplomatic words he has in store for Canadian President Paul Martin who [along with U.S. President Bush] is the other major sponsor of this free trade proposal.)

Then, true to the machismo tradition, Fox threatened that if Chavez did not issue an immediate apology, he would do whatever is necessary to “defend the honour of the Mexican people.” But, in equally machismo fashion (made more menacing by his paranoid megalomania), Chavez responded on Sunday by warning Fox on live TV: “don’t mess with me [amigo] because you’ll get stung!”