Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela Shake Hands

From Australia's The Age comes what seems to be the best coverage of what happened at the Rio Group meeting to get Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela shaking hands again. There had been a lot of other press coverage but most seemed to be relatively fact-free.

This one statement may surprise a lot of people.

It was Chavez, who many observers feared would further fan the flames during the summit, who sought to calm things down.

Possibly the most important thing learned, however, is that the countries of the region can negotiate their own settlements. It seems pretty clear that the U.S. backing Colombia's position was just an unneeded external involvement.

For those wondering why Chavez was so "excited" about Raul Reyes' death, there is another ingredient. Chavez had worked with Reyes to secure the release of six FARC hostages earlier this year. Hopefully, Chavez will be able to continue to pursue a non-military solution to release further hostages.