Chavez being Chavez

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The subtexts of the summit meeting of leaders from Latin America and the European Union that kicks off today in Lima, Peru, could prove more interesting than the formal agenda, which is headed by global warming, poverty and the food crisis. The meeting takes place just days after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez compared German Chancellor Angela Merkel with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. In Brazil to meet with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva before arriving in Lima, Merkel jokingly said in response to a reporter’s question that no, she didn’t need Lula’s protection from Chavez in Lima, that she could take care of herself. The summit also starts less than 24 hours after Interpol declared that thousands of electronic files on laptops recovered from the camp of slain Colombian rebel leader Raul Reyes in Ecuador were not tampered with. That adds credence -- but by no means definitive proof -- to the Colombians’ long held belief that the Chavez government has been offering material help to the FARC, Colombia’s largest rebel group. Although Interpol said nothing about the laptops’ content, the Colombian government for weeks has been strategically leaking e-mails to Reyes that it says were downloaded from the computers and which it insists show that the Chavez government offered aid and comfort to the rebels. At a press conference yesterday in Caracas, Chavez dismissed the Interpol report as he has the Colombian allegations, by describing Interpol General Secretary Ronald Noble as a ‘gringo policeman.... How impartial is the noble Mr. Noble! He starts by saying the FARC are terrorists and then congratulates the police of Colombia for what they did in Ecuador,’ a reference to the Colombian bombing raid that killed Reyes and also violated Ecuadorean sovereignty. Directing his words to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Chavez said: ‘I’d like to see you without the support of the U.S. government. By now, you long ago would have left by the back door.... You are a narco by your politics and that [charge] didn’t come out of any computer. It’s supported by witnesses, live ones.’ As many as 57 world leaders, including Chavez, Uribe and Merkel, are attending the summit. At his opening address this morning, Peruvian President Alan Garcia implored those attending to come up with ‘concrete solutions’ to problems, including poverty, deforestation and food scarcities.

By Chris Kraul and Mery Mogollon, Bogotá Bureau