Based off of: http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21664226-beleaguered-strongman-picks-fight-seeking-scapegoats

In an nation, foreign relations is a big deal. If you don’t know what the Iran Nuclear Deal is, just think foreign relations. Foreign relations is basically how the relationship between nations is handled. As a leader of a nation, you want as strong of foreign relations with as many different nations as possible. Well, with neighbors Colombia and Venezuela, this ideal situation has never quite been a reality. Tensions really arose in July when a stretch of pipeline blew up and then tensions of another kind soon flared. But the current quarrel is having a particularly dire effect on ordinary people, and it makes a mockery of the efforts of Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia’s president, to mend fences with his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro. In August, Mr. Maduro closed the border crossings connecting Venezuela’s Táchira state with an adjoining department of Colombia, Norte de Santander. He said his aim was to stop Colombian smugglers which he blames for food shortages in his nation. The Venezuelan leader has now called a state of emergency and is now ordering all illegal Colombian immigrants to be deported back to Colombia. And then he closed another border post. 1,500 Colombians were deported in the short time period of two weeks and a staggering 18,600 have fled back to their homeland. Now there are more than 3,400 deportees crowded into a meer 21 shelters in Colombia. Colombia is enraged, and rightly so, saying Venezuela has created a humanitarian crisis. They are now accusing Venezuela for blaming their economic incompetence on others. That last allegation may be well-founded; Mr Maduro has every reason to distract opinion ahead of elections in December that his Socialists may lose. But if he wants to win an election come December, picking a fight with Colombia may not be his best strategy. 5 million of Colombia’s 30 million people are of Colombian descent… and many are registered to vote. Mr Santos and Mr Maduro initially said they were ready to discuss ways of easing tension; but that was before the fresh border closure on September 7th. “When we open the door to dialogue, Venezuela responds by closing the border even more,” fumed the Colombian leader.
This could quite potentially have a great affect on America. We have strong relations with Colombia, and we can only hope that these disputes do not affect our relations. Recent partnership that links the governments of both nations around several key issues, including fighting communism, the War on Drugs, and especially since the September 11 attacks in 2001, the threat of terrorism. During the last fifty years, different American governments and their representatives have become involved in Colombian affairs through the implementation of policies concerned with the above issues. As long as these issues do not mess with their views on foreign policies, which many times situations like this will cause, the United States should be well off. We just need to hope that no foreign policies are changed in Colombia that could cause an issue with US’s policies.