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Venezuela, Ecuador move troops to Colombian border

Venezuela and Ecuador moved their troops to their respective borders with Colombia and engaged in a war of words as they found themselves yesterday in a tense standoff over Colombia's anti-guerrilla raid into Ecuador.

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa said late on Sunday that he had ordered the deployment of troops to the northern border and the "immediate expulsion" of Colombian Ambassador Carlos Holguin as a result of Saturday's raid, in which Raul Reyes, the second-ranking commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was killed.

Ecuador earlier recalled its own ambassador to Bogota and warned that Colombia's actions might result in "ultimate consequences."

Correa also canceled a visit to Cuba to deal with the crisis at home.

From Caracas, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he was sending 10 army battalions equipped with tanks and fighter aircraft to his country's border with Colombia.

Correa's initial reaction to the raid was relatively calm. But he admitted he had become angry when he learned the FARC rebels "were not killed in hot pursuit, but were bombed and massacred in their sleep."

In a statement released earlier on Sunday, Colombian Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo extended Bogota's apology for the action, but said the Colombian military "had to take over the border area" because it needed to locate "the place from which it took fire."

But later, the tone hardened when a spokesman for Colombian President Alvaro Uribe accused Correa of making commitments to the FARC.

He said documents found in computers belonging to Reyes showed that "Correa has a relationship and commitments with the FARC."

Colombian police chief Oscar Naranjo said the discovered documents showed that Ecuadoran Security Minister Gustavo Larrea had been in contact with Colombian rebels to inform them "on behalf of Rafael Correa" that the Ecuadoran president "was interested in making relations with the FARC official."

Chavez meanwhile said Ecuador "can count on Venezuela for whatever it needs, in any situation."

"We don't want war, but we won't let the Empire or its lap dog President Uribe try to make us weaker," Chavez said.

The "Empire" is Chavez's standard reference to the US.

Chavez also ordered his foreign minister to close the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota and tell all officials to come home.

Venezuela's ambassador to Colombia had already been recalled in November during a previous Chavez-Uribe spat.

With no love lost between the two leaders, Chavez slammed Uribe for violating Ecuador's territorial integrity.

"President Uribe is a criminal, not only a liar, he is a mafioso, a paramilitary leading a terrorist state," he said. "He's a criminal who heads a gang of criminals at the Narino Palace," a reference to Colombia's presidential office.

Chavez added that Colombia "had become the Israel of Latin America."
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