The Undignified Showdown between Colombia and Venezuela at the OAS

Yesterday, Colombia publicly accused Venezuela of harboring Colombian terrorists in its territory and demanded that Venezuela open its borders to carry out a multilateral investigation. Sadly, the accusations could not have come at a worse timing or at a poorer venue...Venezuela’s reaction: eliminate all diplomatic relations with Colombia.

It may well be the case that Colombia’s accusations are true——hell, we know that Chávez is not the most enlightened leader on the planet and there exists evidence to suggest that the accusations are true. However, it was extremely irresponsible on the part of Álvaro Uribe (outgoing president of Colombia) to have brought about such a profound dispute right before his handing over of the presidency (he is scheduled to finish his term on August 7th). Venezuelan-Colombian relations were already unstable after a series of spats and in the past year commerce between both nations plummeted as Chávez put barriers to Colombian exports. As it stands now, the situation could potentially undermine any possibilities of reconciliation between Venezuela and the incoming Colombian administration, which by the way seems to favor a more pragmatic approach on its relations with Venezuela. 

What’s worse is that by using an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) as the forum in which to present the so-called evidence, Colombia lost street cred through its lack of decorum and wasted potentially valuable information on an organization that is 1) unable to do anything about the situation and 2) composed of various nations that are not particularly interested in siding with Colombia against Venezuela (e.g. Bolivia, Ecuador, etc.). 

This profound lack of professionalism and pragmatism on the part of Uribe a few days before leaving office suggests that he is more preoccupied with his own legacy and personal battles than the welfare of his nation or the future relations between Colombia and Venezuela.

That said, Venezuela’s reaction was equally melodramatic and childlike, but that’s nothing new coming from Chávez. This time, however, his remarks were made even more ludicrous (and awkward) than usual by the presence of Diego Maradona at his side (random...).

We cannot ignore the situation in Venezuela and something certainly needs to be done in order to prevent countries from fostering terrorism. However, carrying out accusations in such an undiplomatic and undignified fashion eliminates the possibility of cooperating to resolve the underlying issues by further alienating petulant nations. Undoubtedly, when it comes to Venezuela, being the bigger "person" is still Colombia's best bet.