Word: colombia
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...just that and not give them more attention. Chavez forces us to study them, however, because sometimes he goes further than simply rubbing shoulders with celebrities. Lately, he has returned to using his country as a plaything for attention. The United States’s increasing role in Colombia, Venezuela’s neighbor, maddens Chavez. He lacks a real reason for his ire, besides an apparent obsession with United States imperialist tendencies he believes still alive and active. So Chavez mobilizes his armed forces, sends 15,000 troops to the border, and turns to his greatest megalomaniacal outlet...
...Colombia can only watch in angst and appeal to higher bodies such as the UN Security Council and the Organization of American States because it cannot simply back down to Chavez’s displeasure. The United States’s increasing presence in Colombia could not be the consequence of a more serious issue—contesting and fighting drug cartels, and drugs themselves, at one of their primary sources. Such action will provide a major boost to Colombia’s efforts to combat the forces of the drug cartels and increase the odds of reclaiming territories...
...reasons. Juan Carlos Tanus, president of the Association of Colombians in Venezuela, says Venezuela's advantages include jobs and subsidized food and health, which has been provided for the past 10 years by Chávez's socialist government. In fact, Tanus notes, from 2002 to 2008 - even as Colombia got safer thanks to Uribe's offensive against leftist guerrillas - the number of Colombians emigrating to Venezuela each year rose from 21,200 to 93,000. (See pictures of the jungle stronghold of Colombia's leftist guerrillas...
That's a potential embarrassment for Uribe, whose success against the rebels has been an economic boon for Colombia. Economic growth from 2002 to 2008 averaged an impressive 5.3% annually. But the number of working-class Colombians bolting for Venezuela hints that Uribe has yet to make that new wealth trickle down - a failing that could simply continue the kind of inequality that has fueled civil wars in Colombia for centuries. "The economic growth statistics published in the media are one thing," says Patricia Yañez, a sociologist at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas who studies...
That, in turn, has Uribe supporters crowing - especially since Colombia's improved security situation and business-friendly policies are prompting a return of many middle-class expats. Spain, in fact, reports that under its new program to help expats from around the world return to their home countries, Colombians have been filing the second highest number of requests...