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Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Good News and Bad News

The multi-decade war against narcotics-fueled leftist rebels and terrorists in Colombia is finally winding down. But there's a catch. There's always a catch.

This non-news is big:

In the news business good news is no news at all. Thus Colombia is rapidly fading from the headlines because of the recent signing of a peace deal with the FARC rebels and continuing declines in crime rates. Colombia is now the most robust economy in South America while next door in Venezuela there is plenty of news and that does not seem likely to change anytime soon. Venezuela has the worse economy in the region, the highest crime rates in the world and faces the very real threat of civil war and widespread chaos. This will be a problem for Colombia because millions of refugees are likely to head across the border to Colombia.

I'm actually relieved that a Bush-era effort ("Plan Colombia," it was called, I think) to win the already decades-long war there was not abandoned by President Obama because of being "tainted" by Bush 43.

But Venezuela could spoil the victory parade.

Solving one problem really is just the entry ticket for the next problem, isn't it?