Reportedly at the meeting in Cancun to create a new organization of Latin American unity, Hugo Chavez and Alvaro Uribe got into a strong confrontation. As the two Presidents argued about Venezuela’s commercial boycott of Colombia, Chavez sen Uribe to Hell (Vete pa’l carajo) and when Chavez threatened to leave Uribe told him to be a man and stay to argue face to face (sea varon y quedese a discutir de frente). (In English here)
There is never unity when Hugo is involved, if you are not with him, you are against him.
The Devil's Excrement 
February 25, 2010 at 10:49 am
I really like El Chiguire Bipolar’s rendition of the conversation: http://www.elchiguirebipolar.com/2010/02/develan-transcripcion-de-la-pelea.html
February 24, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Captainccs:
Ah, mo money, more problems, no?
February 24, 2010 at 7:55 pm
>>>To be fair, we Venezuelans have not excelled overall historically in matters regarding general maintenance. <<<
This is true enough but things have gone downhill not since 1999 but since 1958 when General Marcos Perez Jimenez was ousted. I remember visiting Cartagena around 1956 and thinking how backward Colombia was. I made a mental note hoping Venezuela would never look like that. A few years ago a friend visited Cartagena and she could not stop the praises. Now Cartagena is YuppyTown while Caracas is CrappyTown.
I know we all hate Chávez but in fairness I have to say that the degradation started a long time before Chávez took over. With Chávez the degradation just accelerated.
The problem is socialism and populism made possible by The Devil's Excrement. Colombia got where it got by working. We got where we got by sucking on a teat. Sad.
February 24, 2010 at 7:37 pm
@Anon
Got it, Thanks. Good Luck.
February 24, 2010 at 6:20 pm
@bjohns15
To be fair, we Venezuelans have not excelled overall historically in matters regarding general maintenance. However, there seemed to be a noticeable trend towards improvement in this area, cut short in 1999 when Hugo Chávez won his first election. From then on things have gone manifestly downhill, steeply, too.
The change in government brought large amounts of colossally rapacious ignoramuses into power, who spend most of their time figuring out how best to line their pockets, giving little or no thought to maintenance of any kind.
The latest example of this destructive attitude is our current electrical crisis, where all the plans that were in place to keep up with increasing demand by building more hydroelectric power plants were put aside and mindlessly ignored thereafter.
February 24, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Kepler is right, last month it was the “you’ve struck out” refrain. This month it should be ”sea varón”.
Keep heckling him. Sooner or later, he’ll reveal his true colors. And like Chavez, you’ve got to be thinking two or three moves ahead, so start working on the next couple of months.
February 24, 2010 at 10:58 am
For those that have lived in Venezuela from pre-chavez years, I have a question. This summer, I went to both Venezuela and Colombia. Caracas, unlike any major city in Colombia, was blighted. Does this have to do with Chavez’s government, or other factors as well?
February 24, 2010 at 10:56 am
Chavez is a repugnant disrespectful uncivilized savage and a communist together with his followers – there will always be an abundance of imbecils in the world, that can vote. Hail Uribe for standing up to this ugly chimpanzee. People like Chavez, Castro, Stalin, Hitler, they cannot be reasoned with, they have to be fought an eye to eye and a tooth for a tooth. Diplomacy is out the door with these tyrants. So the only thing left is isolation and defamation. Down Communism! Down Chavez! Down Castro! Long Live Democracy!
February 24, 2010 at 4:55 am
I agree with Bruni. Uribe is trapped by his mindset. Still, there is an important message that was there as well and it got lost precisely because of that male-female (ay, no eres hombre, lerolero) thing:
Hugo is a coward because he runs away from open, real debate.
So we should reformulate Uribe’s words and challenge Hugo time after time very publicly to debate with any of the opposition leaders, as they do everywhere. Will he accept? I think he will never do it, but that is NOT the point. The point is to show him to all for what he is, to put him in an unconfortable position.
February 23, 2010 at 10:03 pm
When Raul the killer is the peacemaker, you know things are really screwed up.
February 23, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Surely even any implied questioning of ones masculine credentials is a maiming thrust by any Latin American male to another? This ranks right along with Juan Carlos’s soundbite as a riposte. Don’t let that bespectacled Clark Kent look fool you; this guy could run rings around old Fatso any time he wants, in any arena. Proof was, Evo felt he had to chime in later something about American puppets in order to even the score up. Just more evidence things are turning against Hugo in all sorts of ways. People are no longer inhibited about answering him back.
February 23, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Uribe’s sentence comes from another era. It seemed to me like reading Romulo Gallegos..”sea varón”…that single statement is full of significance.
You see, in the US or Canada it would be impossible for a President to use that term
“be a man” ..in fact the translation is even trickier, it is more “be a male”.
In the end it shows that in Uribe’s mind, the world still belongs to the “varones”, which is kind of true, even though in our modern societies we like to kid ourselves believing it ain’t so.
A fascinating reaction.
February 23, 2010 at 11:21 am
Roberto,
Could the Ud. form be specific to where uribe is from, Medellin? I remember them being more formal than those of La Costa and Bogota.
February 23, 2010 at 10:32 am
AIO:
I think that it has more to do with how Colombians use that term. It always struck me as funny how a Colombian couple married for 40 years would still address each other as Usted, and not the more familiar Tu.
Tu, is not really used in Colombia, at least not as much as we use it.
That being said, I cannot envision Uribe ever using Tu with Chavez.
Even insulting him, referring to his mom, he’d probably use Su instead of TU.
February 23, 2010 at 8:59 am
Notice how Uribe persists in using the “usted” form with Chavez, no matter how little he deserves the respect? (Even the King of Spain fell for that one at least once.) For Uribe, it’s no doubt about the office, not the person, but his restraint in that regard is truly remarkable.
Whatever else one may say about this, Uribe is…presidential. Chavez is not.
February 23, 2010 at 12:56 am
Oh boy. In a day or so we can expect some more sword rattling and another long prattling speech about how Uribe is a yankee puppet or some such non-sense.
February 22, 2010 at 11:36 pm
Ole! Ole! Bravo Uribe! At least one has the guts to put Chavez in his place. I can see Chavez there now saying ” The great job I have done for Venezuela I could do for all of LatAm” Screw the delicadenza follow Uribe the rest of you.
February 22, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Es in macaco, con el perdón de los macacos!
http://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=macaco&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=vU2DS_LjI82llAfoiIjeAQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCQQsAQwAw