The Washington Post reports President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, claiming solidarity with President Evo Morales of Bolivia, has broken diplomatic ties with the United States. He has given the U.S. ambassador 72 hours to leave the country, and recalled his own ambassador from Washington, D.C.
Chavez is the latest in a long line of tin-pot caudillos to emerge in Latin America. It would appear that he hopes to inherit the mantle of informal leader of the anti-American socialist movement from the aging Fidel Castro of Cuba.
Chavez claims he will restore diplomatic relations if and when the U.S. has a government that respects the people of Latin America. One supposes he means an Obama government. Having no diplomatic relations with the U.S. should make it more difficult for Chavez to distribute low-cost heating oil to the socialists of Vermont.
