Reply #2: I'm still trying to figure it out. [View All]

[bemildred]

Chavez, near as I can see, is just adjusting for inflation,
he's awash in oil money thanks to Bush and his minions and still
cleaning up the mess from the "strike".

Colombia is a different case as far as I can see from here,
they have had a rapid appreciation of the Peso relative to the
dollar, people are dumping dollars, and it's bad for his economy
which ships a lot to el Norte. But there are other issues, after
a "quiet" period where things looked stable, I am starting to
see a lot of interesting incidents, the Granda kidnapping and its
aftermath, FARC attacks and battles, political shouting matches.
I have the feeling that something is up, but don't really know what,
except that Uribe is between a rock (the USA) and a hard place
(his reformist neighbors), and I have a feeling he is siding with
his neighbors, but I'm not sure what that means other than the
resolution of the Granda issue.