It is peace in our time, though no love lost, as Uribe wisely dropped the machismo all too common in South-American politics and issued a formal apology for violating the borders of Ecuador. Also dropped were plans of dragging Chavez in front on an international court over his support to the FARC guerillas. The lowering of tensions welcome for Venezuela, who get a major part of their food supplies from Colombia, empty supermarket shelves not uncommon even when normal relations.
The tense meeting of the Organisation of American States in the Dominican Republic ended with the stone-faced trio of Uribe, Correa and Chavez shaking hands, but not until plenty of remarks were exchanged. Highlights include Ecuador's Correa dryly remarking to much laughter that the Dominican hosts better be sure that there were no terrorists on the island, or Uribe would come and bomb them. Uribe was not amused. Later on Argentina's Christina Kirchner scored a gender goal in honour of the International Women's Day, when observing that while women were often accused of hysterics, looking at the reactions of the three implicated heads of state caused one to wonder about male hysteria.
Finally, while tensions are momentarily down, these issues at hand are by no means resolved and are certain to emerge again in the near future. Ecuador is asking for UN troops on the Colombian border, while Colombian plans to publish incriminating evidence from the FARC laptops captured in the raid are sure to again aggravate the neighbours. Interesting times ahead.
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