Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

It looks as though Chávez is going to cut a deal or two with Argentina and very likely join Mercosur in the bargain. At the Summit of the Americas, Chávez said he would be proposing an alternative to Bush's FTAA and he seems to be following through.

   

President Néstor Kirchner will hold talks with Hugo Chávez in Venezuela today, hoping to expand energy supply agreements at a time when the leftwing Venezuelan leader is locked in a fierce verbal row with the US and Mexico. Prior to Kirchner's arrival in Venezuela last night, Chávez said he was moving toward alternatives to a US-backed trade proposal and that the "Buenos Aires-Caracas axis" will dominate the region's political future.

    Chávez also said the talks would lead to a quick incorporation of Venezuela as a full member of the Mercosur trade bloc, formed by Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. "The talks were aimed at agreements for the strengthening of South American unity as well as Venezuela's entrance to Mercosur," he said during his weekly television programme. He bluntly portrayed Mercosur as an alternative to the US-promoted Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, a topic that led to unusually open squabbling during this month's hemispheric summit in Mar del Plata.

    Argentina's close relationship with Venezuela reportedly irks Washington, who sees the populist Chávez as its main antagonist in the region along with Cuba's Fidel Castro.

Bush brought it on himself... the swaggering unilateralism, ignoring the value of traditional diplomacy and often neglecting simple courtesy are sure-fire recipes for pushing nations away from the U.S. It seems to be working quite well.