Latin America's sudden silence on Gaddafi | Al Jazeera Blogs: "Both geographically and culturally Latin America is a world away from Libya. However, examining the record shows how Libya’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi
, in recent years has quietly built political and economic alliances with Latin America that are mutually beneficial. Those new alliances might now be working to Gaddafi’s advantage, earning him support by some of president's of the region, and forcing others to think twice before openly criticising him this past week.With conservative estimates of hundreds killed in the past week, mass defections of Gaddafi loyalists, and reports the Libyan leader is employing foreign mercenaries to kill his own people who rise up against him, many of Latin America’s presidents have refused to condemn Gaddafi in the harshest of terms. Perhaps the reason why is because many of these same Latin American leaders were up until last week building cozy relations with Gaddafi; some on ideological grounds, others for trade and economic purposes; or both."
