AP Photo

It happened in Cancun where 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries were meeting. At a private lunch, the group witnessed an unseemly encounter between Alvaro Uribe and Hugo Chavez. Speaking off the record as is customary in these gatherings, Uribe called on Chavez to end Venezuela's hindrance of trade relations with Colombia.

Since the 2008 Colombian attack on a FARC base in Ecuador, Chavez has kept bilateral commercial ties in check. Politics aside, Venezuela and Colombia had been major partners in trade. Uribe had the temerity to compare Chavez's measures to the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Comandante Hugo shot back that Colombian paramilitaries had threatened his life and headed for the door in a tizzy. Uribe retorted: "Be a man!" Chavez snapped back: "Go to hell!"

Hugo...