WHERE THERE'S OIL, THERE'S SMOKE, BUT IS THERE FIRE?

It's becoming less and less clear whether the Bush Administration's failure to comdemn the failed coup in Venezuela was simply a moral lapse or something far worse. Granted, the return to power of the demagogic Chavez should not warm many hearts outside the Venezuelan underclass that he's conned. However, it is inexecusable that the United States government could care less whether Chavez was booted out after an election, or taken out in a military coup. Even more troubling are the stories about the contacts the Bush administration had with the coup plotters. As if the real facts aren't bad enough, it's spawned ridiculous conspiracy theories on the far left linking it with the upcoming war on Iraq - you know the whole oil is the "real" reason behind America's foreign policy. We are long overdue for a revamping of our Latin American policy. The goal should be to limit the pendulum swings between left-wing demagogues and right-wing generalissimos; to do so we need to find ways to promote gradual, steady reform that reduces the obscene gaps between rich and poor that have persistently plagued our neighbors to the south.