Why is Obama helping Chavez?

Playing footsie under the table with Mr. Chávez on Honduras while the Venezuelan is threatening the peace isn’t going to fly in a hemisphere that prefers liberty over tyranny.

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Both Colombian and U.S. officials allege that the Venezuelan National Guard and high-ranking members of Mr. Chávez’s government are in cahoots with criminal enterprises that run drugs in South America. The evidence suggests an alliance between the terrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)—the largest exporter of cocaine from that country—and members of Mr. Chávez’s cabinet. There is also evidence in documents and video captured from the FARC that the rebels have influence at high levels of the Ecuadoran government…

Honduras remains a target. Argentina is also in his sights. In an interview with the Argentine daily La Nación, he spoke of his alliance with Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner. “We are going to work to reinforce the Caracas-Buenos Aires axis, which is a central axis,” Mr. Chávez said. “Like the Caracas-Quito axis, the Caracas-Buenos Aires axis is fundamental for the integration.”

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The U.S. war on drugs has been a colossal failure because of the large cocaine market in the U.S. The tragedy—beyond the violence it creates—is that criminal enterprises, flourishing because of U.S. customers, wreak havoc on frail institutions. That’s bad enough. But the Obama administration pours salt in that gaping wound by refusing to support the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement our ally has asked for, and now by backing Mr. Chávez’s Honduran pawn.

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