Not since US President Barack Obama’s mini tour of Latin America in March last year has so much attention been given to one man’s visit to the region. When Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadineyad arrived in Caracas on 8 January at the head of a large retinue for the first leg of a four (possibly more) nation tour, more column inches had been devoted to his presence in the region in the US media, and what it signified at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Teheran, than any single event in the region in 2011 other than Obama’s visit. This suited Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez down to the ground and he clearly revelled in the attention; both men directed verbal missiles northwards. But beneath their rhetorical repartee what does the visit really mean? End of preview - This article contains approximately 1258 words.
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