Outside the Beltway

Chávez Misses the Summit

· Sunday, April 15, 2012 · 3 comments

Hugo Chávez missed the Summit of the Americas meeting in Colombia because of a need for more cancer treatments.

Greg Weeks notes what this means:

The bottom line is that this is not something Chávez wants to miss. There are relatively few opportunities to overcome the power imbalance between him and the U.S. president, but having a summit where both are present is one. International institutions offer that possibility at times. He can say whatever he wants, bring some sort of symbolic gift, etc., and the U.S. president has to deal with it. The fact that he is giving that up says more about his health than any rumor.

Indeed.

FILED UNDER: Latin America, World Politics, ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Doug Mataconis says:
    Sunday, 15 April 2012 at 17:20

    This leads to a question I haven’t seen discussed much in the U.S. media (okay maybe it has been but it’s hard to find the serious news in between the headines about Bieber, Lohan, and the cast of Glee).

    Is Venezuela headed for a succession crisis?

  2. An Interested Party says:
    Sunday, 15 April 2012 at 17:55

    Is Venezuela headed for a succession crisis?

    Well, certainly you could wrote a post about that rather than Hilary Rosen, Keith Moon, Herman Cain, or the Fox News mole…

  3. Steven L. Taylor says:
    Sunday, 15 April 2012 at 17:59

    @Doug Mataconis:

    Is Venezuela headed for a succession crisis?

    I fear that it may be, yes.

    I wrote a little bit about it here.

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