Although Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez are often lumped together in the same Latin American "populist left" basket, the fact that Correa is involved in mediating the latest manufactured crisis between Venezuela and Colombia underscores the difference between the two.
It also suggests that power in the emerging geopolitical landscape will increasingly relocate toward the connecting states that manage to bridge differences between various feuding nodes. Clearly, Turkey is the most visible example of how that will work, but Qatar is another. And a detail from this NY Times article on the impact of sanctions on Iran's efforts to develop its South Pars gas field jumped out at me in this regard:
That's a pretty stark numeric reflection of the cost-benefit differential between connecting states and divider states. In an age of persistent conflict, the demand for conflict resolution will obviously rise. Which means the peacemakers will not only be blessed, but richer and more powerful, too.