Chavez and Colombia bump heads

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has cut diplomatic ties with Colombia, after its President Alvaro Uribe accused his military of supplying the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia with grenade launchers,
There really isn’t much love lost between these two leaders. One is a populist and nationalist leader who has thumbed his nose at the US, while the other is a direct puppet of the US, collecting military hardware and receiving US troops to hunt down leftist guerrillas that have been fighting there for about 40 years.
Chavez has also refused to recognize the new military government in Honduras, which came to power in a right-wing coup.
Ironically Colombia is a major imperialist outpost in South America. Uribe is probably the US’s closest ally. There “total war” approach to the guerrillas has just escalated the war their and caused a lot of death and destruction. Also there is no dialog offered to the guerrillas, which means the Colombia government intends to exterminate them.
Much of this is done under the guise of fighting drug traffic. The US public would never consent to such a military build up just to fight leftist guerrillas. But the US can claim to be stopping cocaine with this war.

From the New York Times.