There are few presidents that can act as flamboyantly as our dearest Hugo Chavez. Last Sunday, during his program Aló Presidente, Chavez declared in classic Chavez style: “Mr. Defense Minister, move me ten battalions of tanks to the border immediatelly. Send tanks and military aviation”.
All this after Colombia’s military had ventured a mile into Ecuador on Saturday to kill the number two FARC leader Raul Reyes . It could actually be a sketch from SNL if it weren’t true: President X gets mad at President Y for going into President Z’s country and killing a guerilla leader from country Y.
Hard to follow? That is what makes Garcia Marquez a genius, he takes every day life from Latin America and shares our craziness with the rest of the civilized world. Makes for excellent drama and magic realism.
Both Uribe and Chavez suffer from macho egos but neither can afford an armed conflict, still, it seems Latin America is undergoing a escalating arms race. Political tensions are on the rise day by day with commentaries from Chavez such as: “President Uribe is a criminal, not only a liar, he is a gangster – a paramilitary that leads a terrorist State. He is a criminal, that leads a band of criminals at the Presidential Palace”. Strange choice of words coming from Chavez… I guess it takes one to know one.
Our very mixed group includes both Colombians and Venezuelans living in close quarters, I wonder what this conflict should mean for us. Should we send a battalion to the creative team? We could bombard them with paper planes flying through the office. Maybe close our PR department and send our account executive back to her country as has been done with the embassy staff?
As tensions run high during this ridiculous situation, our only recourse is to laugh laugh laugh. We have to remember we all speak the same language, eat the same food, dance to the same music, have the same background and prefer a cold beer at the beach on a slow day than to get up in arms. No matter how ‘bravo’ a pueblo we are – the ‘rumba’ comes first.