As regular readers know, I like to follow developments in South America. In today's Wall Street Journal on Page One, José De Córdoba and David Luhnow wrote an article New President Has Bolivia Marching To Chavez's Beat (subscription required). As the title suggests, the article discusses how Bolivia's president Evo Morales is following the lead of Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez.
Bolivia represents Mr. Chavez's greatest triumph in his drive to use Venezuela's oil wealth to create and lead a bloc of anti-American countries in the region and beyond. He has thrown a lifeline to Cuba, lent hundreds of millions of dollars to Argentina and Ecuador and has twice voted to support Iran's nuclear ambitions in the International Atomic Energy Agency.
For the U.S., Mr. Chavez's tightening alliance with Bolivia both threatens to undo years of political and economic liberalization in South America and is the latest in a series of energy-security threats. President Bush on Monday said he was "concerned about the erosion of democracy" in Bolivia and Venezuela. Venezuela boasts the biggest oil and natural-gas supplies outside the Middle East, and Bolivia has South America's second-biggest natural-gas reserves.
Some day this will all end badly.
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