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Chavez shrugs off criticism over terrorist remarks

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, left, and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, center, speak to the media during an unexpected visit to the Diario Hoy newspaper in Managua on Wednesday. PHOTO: EPA/DIARIO HOY

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shrugged off Colombia's criticism that he ignored crimes committed by that nation's guerrillas when he urged world leaders to stop classifying them as terrorists.

"The Colombian government is sending a letter of protest against Venezuela," Chavez said on Wednesday during a visit to Nicaragua. "They can send all the protest letters they want, but we will continue insisting that peace must be sought in Colombia."

Colombian officials did not confirm that any such letter had been sent to Venezuela, but Colombia's foreign minister, Fernando Araujo, said Chavez "confuses cooperation with meddling, just as he confused mediation with taking sides."

The spat between Bogota and Caracas stems from Chavez's call to classify the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the smaller National Liberation Army as legitimate "insurgent forces" rather than terrorists.

Chavez "ignores the terrorist actions of the guerrillas, their role in drug trafficking, crimes against children, women and the elderly, kidnappings and other crimes that are classified as terrorism," said Araujo, a former FARC-held hostage who escaped in 2006 after six years in captivity.

Colombia accuses the FARC of holding more than 700 hostages, many kept for years in the jungle.

The EU joined Washington in listing the FARC -- Latin America's largest rebel force with roughly 14,000 fighters -- as a terrorist group in 2002, outlawing economic support for the guerrillas.

Chavez insists Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will not negotiate with rebels because the conservative leader has bowed to pressure from US President George W. Bush.

The Venezuelan leader also accused Colombian military officials of conspiring with US officials to assassinate him.

In Bogota, "American officials are conspiring with Colombian military officials against Venezuela, conspiring to kill me, conspiring to generate an armed conflict between Colombia and Venezuela," Chavez said.
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