Venezuela and Mexico called their ambassadors home in a spat between presidents Hugo Chavez and Vicente Fox that has brought sharp, personal accusations and has ballooned into one of the most pronounced diplomatic disputes of Chavez' presidency.
Verbal barbs have sailed between Chavez and Fox in recent days, and Mexico demanded Venezuela apologize on Monday for Chavez's latest remark warning Fox: "Don't mess with me, sir."
Venezuela promptly ordered its ambassador home on Monday to protest what Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez called an unjustified ultimatum by Mexico.
"The whole world knows that this didn't begin on the Venezuelan side," Venezuelan Ambassador Vladimir Villegas said at Mexico City's airport, where Mexican television reported he boarded a plane and left late on Monday.
Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said Mexico's ambassador, Enrique Loaeza y Tovar, would return home from Caracas first thing yesterday.
The diplomatic clash highlighted a deep rift over relations with the US and a US proposal for a hemisphere-wide free trade zone. It also brought out long-standing differences between Fox, a conservative who tends to side with Washington, and Chavez, a fiery socialist and critic of US President George W. Bush.
"Fox and Chavez are both serving important domestic political purposes for each other," said professor Harley Shaiken, who heads the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
"For Chavez, Fox is a surrogate of the US in Latin America," Shaiken said. "For Fox, coming on against Chavez is low-cost, since he's in his last year [in office], weakened at home ... Standing firm on anything offers him gains."
Tensions spilled over after the Summit of the Americas earlier this month in Argentina, where Fox defended the US plan for a Free Trade Area of the Americas and Chavez proclaimed the idea dead.
The dispute, Shaiken said, has "probably pushed farther and quicker than either side had initially intended" and may not go much further.
Chavez, who took office in 1999, has had a few diplomatic clashes.
Tensions arose with Chile in 2003 after Chavez suggested landlocked Bolivia should have access to the Pacific Ocean -- something it lost in a war with Chile in the 1800s. A dispute with Colombia arose in January over the capture of a Colombian rebel in Caracas, which Chavez said violated Venezuelan sovereignty.
In both cases, tensions quickly dissipated as leaders opted for diplomacy. But the row between Chavez and Fox shows no signs of going away.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese