Chavez Tells Venezuelan Troops to Prepare for War

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that his country’s armed forces should prepare themselves for war with Colombia, adding that if conflict were to break out it could spread “throughout the whole continent.” The AP quotes Chavez, speaking during his weekly “Alo Presidente” talk show: “The best way to avoid war is preparing for it.” For its part, the government of Alvaro Uribe in Colombia has rejected what it calls “threats of war,” saying it plans to appeal to the UN Security Council and the OAS. Uribe asked the Venezuelan president to begin a process of “frank dialogue” over the two countries’ festering disputes which include disagreements over an increased U.S. military presence at Colombian bases. Colombia’s Semana adds that Brazil’s Lula da Silva and Spain’s José Rodriguez Zapatero are working behind the scenes to begin such a dialogue. Lula has reportedly requested that the two leaders join him for a private meeting toward the end of the month while Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez has asked the Spanish to help monitor the Colombia-Venezuela border.

Last week Mr. Chavez ordered some 15,000 Venezuelan troops to the border after a series of murders which he attributes to Colombian paramilitary groups operating in Venezuela. However, according to Elsa Cardoso, professor of international relations at the Central University of Venezuela, Chavez’s latest threats may be a “smoke screen” attempt at “turning the public's attention away from pressing domestic problems ranging from rampant crime to electricity and water rationing.”

On Honduras this weekend, various reports continue to portray talks between ousted President Mel Zelaya and de facto President Roberto Micheletti as dead, even while the U.S. State Dept. continues to disagree. Also, as the Wall Street Journal’s José de Cordoba writes, the events of the last week could spell the end of four months of hemispheric unity between the U.S. and its Latin American counterparts. “Mr. Zelaya's withdrawal from the accord could put the U.S. at loggerheads with a number of Latin American countries who are insisting that the ousted president be restored to power as a necessary part of any political settlement in Honduras. Most of these countries, such as Nicaragua and Bolivia, are closely allied to Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, Mr. Zelaya's most vocal supporter. But hemispheric heavyweight Brazil, which is increasingly seeking a higher profile role in Latin America, is also among the countries loudly demanding Mr. Zelaya's return.” The 23 Latin American and Caribbean nations who make up the Rio Group recently passed a resolution on Honduras saying Mr. Zelaya’s return was an “indispensable requisite” for the countries to recognize the results of Nov. 29 presidential elections (The Rio Group’s full statement can be found here).

Meanwhile, on the ground in Honduras, there were new worries that four months of tension between pro and anti Zelaya forces is leading to increased violence. On Sunday, a convoy carrying Michletti’s Attorney General, Luis Alberto Rubi, was ambushed by gunmen. Nobody was seriously injured. It was Rubi who first filed criminal charges against ousted President Manuel Zelaya after the June 28 coup. Also, Carlos Reyes, an independent, left-leaning presidential candidate, became the first major political figure to pull out of November elections following the breakdown of talks last week. Reyes was running in third place according to most polls, behind Pepe Lobo and Elvin Santos. The Frente Nacional contra el Golpe has said it plans to now boycott November elections as well.

In other stories this weekend:

· The Miami Herald reports on new Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellevire, approved unanimously by the Haitian Senate on Friday. The paper calls the technocrat a “political survivor” who has “held different jobs with at least 10 different administrations, including both presidential terms of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and both terms of President René Préval. According to one unnamed foreign diplomat, “Bellevire is somebody the international community believes they can trust. He's very articulate; he's a good communicator,” but “they don't always like what he has to say.” Critics accuse Bellevire of too often pandering to Haitian politicians.

· The Wall Street Journal says the construction of a new mosque in Nicaragua has started new rumors about growing relations between the government of Daniel Ortega and Iran. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had promised to invest some $1 billion in Nicaragua two years ago, although Nicaraguan officials say the money never came through. Now the Managua mosque (catering to what the WSJ says are just 300 Muslims in the country) has restarted speculation about Iranian influence in the country, even while many believe the money for the mosque came from a Pakistani-born businessman living in Honduras.

· The Miami Herald reports on the brief detention of famous Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez over the weekend. Sanchez says she and another blogger friend were arrested by Cuban police on their way to a peaceful, anti-violence march and roughed up. “No blood, but black and blues, punches, pulled hairs, blows to the head, kidneys, knee and chest,” Sánchez told El Nuevo Herald after she and friend Orlando Luis Pardo were freed. “In sum, professional violence.” The news comes as a bill on Cuba travel may be losing important Democratic support in the U.S. House. Over 50 Democratic representatives wrote Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week saying they support current U.S. Cuba policy.

· The Washington Post writes about Brazilian socialite Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, married to a Rio hotel magnate, but active as one of the country’s most vocal spokespersons for education initiatives in Brazilian favelas. In 1993, Bezerra de Mello started a now famous favela education program called Project Uere.

· In Paraguay, President Fernando Lugo speaks with an Al Jazeera correspondent about coup rumors and the president’s decision to replace top military officials last week.

· And in El Salvador, where at least 124 died over the weekend because of heavy rains and flooding, the WSJ’s ever-provocative columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady says the small Central American country is next on Hugo Chavez’s list for spreading 21^st century socialism. In particular, O’Grady singles out the FMLN’s José Luis Merino, who she calls an “extremist” commonly “believed to be the party's de facto leader,” for pushing the country toward the “Venezuela model.”