by Rod Hughes

As we reported last week (see blog 1615) the Costa Rican foreign ministry continues to push for calm in the dispute between Colombia and Ecuador over the Colombian air strike in Ecuadoran territory against the Marxist FARC guerrillas that killed 24 of the insurgents, including their number two commander, Raul Reyes.

Supremely aware of Costa Rica’s image as peacemaker, its current membership in the UN Security Council and his own Nobel Peace Prize, President Oscar Arias bent the ears of Colombian president Alvaro Uribe and Ecuadoran chief executive Rafael Correa to calm the troubled waters. His foreign minister, Bruno Stagno did likewise with his counterparts from the two countries.

Meanwhile, the Organization of American States passed a resolution calling Colombia’s air attack a violation of territory but not specifically condemning Colombia as Correa requested. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez weighed into the dispute, sending his troops to the border. The Costa Rican stance on Venezuela’s move was echoed, in less diplomatic terms, by a surprisingly blunt editorial in last Fridays edition of The Tico Times, headlined “Butt Out, Hugo.”

Uribe, in his turn, has announced intentions to sue Chavez in the International Court at The Hague for allegedly financing FARC with $300 million of his petro-dollars. FARC has been at war with Colombia for four decades but has in the recent years resorted to terrorist tactics and narcotics traffic.

Editor’s note: Although no direct connection exists with the dispute and this country, we will continue to report on the diplomatic crisis, if only that the news executives in the U.S. media have decided, in their infinite wisdom, that this is not news. The fact that it offers a supreme opportunity for leftist factions throughout Latin America to cause mischief seems to have escaped them, as well as the danger for more violence.