In his column this week, my colleague Gustavo Silva Cano argued that “Colombia would have a more fluid relation with the United States if Senator John McCain had won the presidency last year.” This is probably true. Senator McCain’s policies toward Colombian would likely have maintained the bilateral alliance developed under Presidents George W. Bush and Alvaro Uribe.

In contrast, the new Democratic President and Congress have already distanced themselves from Uribe. The Americans have been strangely quiet, distant and impartial during recent tensions between the Colombian President and his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez. They want to gradually reduce military aid under Plan Colombia, a program started by Presidents Clinton and Pastrana almost a decade ago. Finally, policymakers in Washington have suspended progress on the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with Colombia. In short, the alliance between the U.S. and Colombia seems to be disintegrating.

Several governors and mayors who beat the fiery socialist leader’s chosen candidates in November elections say Chavez has hijacked many of their resources and prerogatives. Now, proposed legislation that would give the president power to squeeze minority parties and arbitrarily redraw legislative districts has set off additional alarms.

Ten years later I am less optimistic.

Despite Chávez’s undisputed control of the three branches of government and windfall profits from the 2003-08 oil boom, his record is remarkably poor. Inflation is running at over 30 percent, the homicide rate has more than doubled since he took office, and food shortages abound.

At the same time, synagogues are attacked or raided by police, reporters are threatened, and human rights workers are summarily expelled. In recent weeks, government officials have seized foreign oil company assets, and threatened to shut down Globovision, an opposition-aligned news network.