The Two Faces of La Jornada

La Jornada, Mexico's foremost leftist newspaper, is a bit like a bizarro Wall Street Journal: it runs thought-provoking, insightful news pieces on a daily basis, but its opinion page borders on insanity. Thursday's paper had a great example of the two faces of La Jornada. On the front page, there was an objective rundown of different schools of though on the oil reform, from the anti-privatization zealots to the pragmatists more willing to consider foreign involvement in the oil industry. 

The same day, Ángel Guerra Cabrera published a piece titled Terrorism a la Carte (it has a double meaning in Spanish that doesn't work in English) that is hard to believe. In addition to comparing the United States and its Latin American allies to the Nazis, Guerra writes:

The principal objective of the sensational findings in the letter in the protected computers of Raul Reyes has been to demonize Hugo Chávez and Rafeal Correa, but also the criminalization of the popular movement and its leaders and [leaders] of contrary thought from Rio Bravo to Patagonia, arguing mendaciously their complicity with the FARC...

There are plenty of reasonable concerns people in Latin America can (and should) have about the role of the US in the region. Likewise, it's perfectly legit to argue that only a coalition of leftist governments will solve Latin Americas ills. But Guerra's piece, having suffered through a bitter divorce with reality, is something different entirely. The Reyes letters, which showed that Chávez pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to the FARC, were authenticated by Interpol experts. Chávez, though to his credit he has since denounced the FARC, has offered nothing resembling an acceptable explanation. Denying this plain truth, not to mention comparing the US to Nazi Germany, discredits the author and his ideology.