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I watched a bunch of the vids. They all speak much too fast for me to understand more than every tenth word. But you are right, there was a lot going on with faces and body language, and I perceived what you did in Cristina Fernandez and Rafael Correa. Boy, was Correa mad! He had been betrayed. I can't help it, the words "Sir Lancelot" always come to mind when I see Correa. (God, what a hunk!) But I guess it would need to be Sir Percival to be consistent with the myth (the pure of heart). I would not want to be the target of Rafael Correa's withering, righteous, clear-eyed anger. Uribe literally squirms in his chair, with his sneaky evasive little eyes, and petulant mouth, throughout Correa's speech. And the LOOK Correa gives him-- when Uribe bounces around the room shaking hands, in his pandering way, and reaches Correa--could kill ten dragons. What. A. Look!!!
The only time I have seen something similar was a Senator Ted Kennedy LOOK--someone called it the Irish Evil Eye--at Donald Rumsfeld at the end of a U.S. Senate hearing (shortly before Rumsfeld resigned). Teddy's contempt, outrage and 'Get thee gone, Satan' attitude toward Rumsfeld were palpable. Same look on Correa's face, but of course younger and more physically menacing. Wow!
Cristina Fernandez was equally angry. For a moment, I thought she might slap the bastard, when Uribe approached her. Instead, she gave him one of the coldest looks I've ever seen one leader give another. Correa's reaction was hot. Fernandez's reaction was complete and utter contempt.
Chavez's reaction to Uribe was like neither of these. Chavez seems to be still working on Uribe, to bring him into "the brotherhood"--a hopeless cause, I'm afraid. He might as well be trying to get Mordred to join the Round Table. But Chavez seems to be ever optimistic and easily jovial. Uribe's pals were planning to assassinate Chavez--and still Chavez smiles at him and tries to jolly him up.
I use the term "the brotherhood" to include Cristina Fernandez. I mean it to convey the sense of a genuine knighthood, almost as if they had sworn a blood pact to CHANGE South America for the better, forevermore. It is very...real and visible, in photos and vids, and of course in policies and actions. This is a very courageous and high-minded group of people, leading the Andes democracies. And there is also strong family/friendship feeling among them--Chavez, Correa, Morales and the Kirchners. And to some extent Lula da Silva.
Compared to them, Uribe comes across as devious, envious and self-consumed. You could almost see his secret thrill at having Bush's Big Power with which to rip Raul Reyes' body to the pieces, and to try to smash up this conspiracy of peace. You can see this in Bush, too. He thrills at violence. It makes him feel whole. I don't see any potential redemption in Uribe (like Chavez keeps trying to appeal to). I can see Uribe coldly enjoying the power of torturing Chavez and putting him to death. And I hope that Chavez does not get sucked in, in some other way, as I think Uribe sucked him into the first hostage negotiation. Chavez (and FARC) got the hostages out, despite Uribe's treachery, but it was touch and go, and it could have been an utter disaster for Chavez.
I was thinking, for a while, that Uribe agreed to the hostage negotiation out of remorse at the assassination plot--let CHAVEZ talk him into trying to negotiate for the hostages--then got his strings pulled by Rumsfeld & co. But, having watched Uribe in these vids, I think he was working with the Bushites to set a trap. The report of the first two released hostages, that they were under heavy fire from the Colombian military DURING their release, puts a new coloration on those events. And Uribe strutting around the room, at the Rio conference, victorious in his "mission accomplished" bloodshed is nauseating.
The condemnation of the entire Latin American leadership means nothing to him. He is Bush's boy. He has their guarantee of wealth and power. They are his masters. And he thinks he has it over everyone else because of that. Thus, Sir Lancelot wants to run him through with the sword of righteousness, and be done with it. Lady Kirchner considers him beneath contempt, and treats him as if he were not there. And Chavez keeps holding out the hope that he can free him from his evil puppetmasters. (Chavez is a sort of King Arthur--ever hopeful, and unable to believe in other peoples' treachery.) (--he ALSO pardoned the Venezuelan coup plotters, and freed the grunt soldiers in the recent rightwing plot in Venezuela, and sent them back to Colombia.)
I know it's unpardonable to be comparing these DEMOCRATS to knights and ladies of ancient times, but I can't help it. I love that myth. And I've always felt that the Round Table was a metaphor for democracy. The Kelts have always been a curious mix of the individualistic, the aristocratic and the communal--and they have much more kinship, culturally, with Latins than with the Nordic tribes. There's something there--in this myth, that informs events in South America. I'm not sure I've put my finger on it. Something about trying to maintain good government in dangerous circumstances, appealing to the best in people, and being ever hopeful that Camelot (prosperity, peace and justice for all) can be recreated.
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