Friday, September 12, 2008

Bolivia and Venezuela send US diplomats packing; US returns the favor

On Thursday, diplomatic envoys from the US in Bolivia and Venezeula were ordered to return to the US, and the US followed suit in the case of Bolivia, though has yet to return the favor in the case of the Venezuelan ambassador to the US.

Among other comments, Hugo Chavez, late Thursday evening, said:

"When there's a new government in the United States--a government that respects Latin America--we'll send an ambassador."

While the declaration on Thursday of the Bolivan ambassador to the US as "persona non grata" may seem like a reactionary response to the equally short-sighted explulson of the US ambassador in Bolivia, it was evidently in accordance with the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations. It remains to be seen when and how this particulary escalated case of diplomatic bullying will be resolved by cooler heads, but one would hope that it will be de-escalated and and that the ambassodors will be returned as soon as possible.

By my own view, two "wrongs" tend not to make a "right" -- but in this case, it appears that two lefts have made a wrong that they will shortly need to make right again.

Source: AFP, Reuters, Bloomberg News, Wikipedia (deal with it)

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