Venezuela Today has found an extremely significant strategic development in the Colombian press: Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is thinking of withdrawing Venezuela’s membership from the Organization of American States. He would do that to circumvent the regional organization’s group efforts to strengthen the OAS’ Democracy Charter, which of course does not serve his interests as a dictator.

This wily move comes as a blow to the Bush administration, which has stated that its strategy is to force Chavez to adhere to democratic norms or face OAS sanctions – and, at this meeting, the U.S. is proposing to add the additional sanction of ‘force.’ Obviously, Chavez, being a tyrant, wants no part of this. His means of evading this would be to drop out as an OAS member.

If Venezuela is out, it’s not part of the club covenant anymore, which is bad for the country’s image, but preferable to potential force from the OAS. It also makes it far more likely that the U.S. will have to resolve its differences with Chavez on its own.

The OAS represents region’s commitment to democracy, with only pariah states excluded. To date, only one nation in the hemisphere is not a member of that organization, Castro’s Cuba.

Meanwhile, here is one of the most clear-headed items of news and analysis I’ve seen on US-Venezuelan relations from the San Francisco Chronicle’s excellent Robert Collier.