South American foreign ministers gathered in Caracas on March 6 to address the poisoned relations between Venezuela's government and its opposition, a crisis that has roiled the Venezuelan streets and besieged President Nicolas Maduro.
The ministers' mission — to "depolarize Venezuela," according to Ernesto Samper, secretary general of the Union of South American Nations — is a noble one. But don't hold your breath. Unasur called an emergency meeting a year ago to try to build a bridge between the Palacio Miraflores and the opposition. The truce didn't last, and now Maduro has answered renewed protests with the Bolivarian boot and sometimes deadly force.
Some Latin leaders have publicly cooled to Maduro's belief there is a yanqui cabal in every shadow, which may be one reason the Caracas parley was convened without the usual Bolivarian fanfare.