Besides hurling the "I" word, Chavez calls Colombia a "genocidal government." He thus repeats the transvaluation of ethical standards we've seen in the Middle East, in which Israel is deemed a terrorist state for resisting terrorism and compared to Nazi Germany for providing a bulwark against a new anti-Jewish genocide. Chavez has made headway. Once merely incapable of keeping FARC from its territory, Ecuador now appears to welcome it and supports Chavez's pro-FARC agenda. Bolivia and Nicaragua are ideological fellow travelers.
A confrontation with Colombia serves another purpose for Chavez: distracting Venezuelans from how his socialist policies have trashed their economy. Despite oil at record-setting prices, Venezuela is wracked by shortages of basic foodstuffs. Last month, looters ransacked a state grocery store in Chavez's hometown. "You don't have to worry about not being able to find chicken or flour," Chavez implicitly says to Venezuelans, "when I'm mobilizing our army behind an outlaw band of fanatical Marxists."
The U.S. must buttress its ally Uribe in Latin America's ideological war. One way to lend him the legitimacy that his enemies want to deny him is to approve the Colombia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which would be an important diplomatic statement of the importance of our relationship and the progress Uribe has made solidifying democratic norms while beating back FARC. Democrats, though, have a case of the anti-trade vapors and are suspicious of Uribe because he is hated by leftist nongovernmental organizations and advocacy groups.
That's another way Colombia is the Israel of Latin America -- a moniker to be proud of.