MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela looses ambassador in friendly turf

Venezuela seems to have lost another “too exposed” diplomat for having triggered undesired events for the host country's president, --Argentina's Kirchner-- even when he happens to be a good friend of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

Argentina's Nestor Kirchner this week complained to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez about his Buenos Aires ambassador's political activities who, according to the local press, is no longer in Argentina.

Ambassador Roger Capella departure was not confirmed or dismissed by the Venezuelan embassy, but his "blackout" from the spotlight is allegedly linked to the current Iran/Argentina conflict over the bombing of a Jewish institution in 1994 in Buenos Aires that left 85 people killed and hundreds injured.

Apparently Capella encouraged a picketer who held a second level post in the Kirchner administration to openly express support for Iran that has been accused by Argentine prosecutors of having masterminded and financed the attack which remains unsolved in spite that for years all the leads pointed to Teheran.

Luis D'Elía a notorious street bully who held the post of Deputy Secretary for Social Habitat Housing and was famous for breaking into private property with the purpose of allegedly rendering housing for the poor and homeless visited with great press coverage the Iranian embassy to express solidarity and reject the Argentine prosecutors' warrants arguing they were part of a US/Israel plot to blame Teheran of world terrorism.

He resigned before being sacked, but President Kirchner apparently was also furious with the activities of Ambassador Capella who apparently belongs to one of the many radical groups that support Chavez in Venezuela and has encouraged, --maybe even help finance--, many of the picketers groups that support the Bolivarian revolution, the Fidel Castro regime and Mr Kirchner, in the streets of Buenos Aires.

Apparently following a friendly phone chat between Kirchner and Chavez it was agreed to give ambassador Capella a "discreet" exit, with an attempt to downplay the whole incident. Mr Chavez doesn't like to have his ambassadors removed by the press as happened before in Mexico, Chile and Peru, and Mr. Kirchner has his eyes set on October 2007 when he expects to rally a big middle center behind whoever in the family runs for president.

President Kirchner also knows he can't be too harsh with President Chavez who has supported him with accessible energy and purchasing a couple of billion US dollars in Argentine sovereign bonds. But several question marks remain. Why the Capella incident was not handled more discreetly, after all the Venezuelan ambassador even when interfering in Argentine radical politics was always praising President Kirchner.

Here again Senator Cristina Fernandez could be playing a new role in foreign policy, taking distance from Venezuela, which openly supports Iran, and establishing a more formal dialogue with the Jewish community both in Buenos Aires and in New York and closer links with the Democrats and their landslide mid term victory that could be anticipating a similar scenario for the White House, when Mrs. Kirchner could be wearing the presidential sash, if victorious in October 2007.