Colombia brought what it called threats of war from neighboring Venezuela to the UN Security Council on Wednesday after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, leader of the neighboring country, told his army to get ready to fight.
For months, Chavez has said that a military pact signed last month between Bogota and Washington could set the stage for a US invasion of Venezuela from Colombian territory.
The US and Colombia dismiss that idea, saying their cooperation is aimed strictly at combating drug traffickers and Marxist insurgents within Colombia.
PHOTO: REUTERS
During a televised address on Sunday, Chavez ordered his military to prepare for war as the best way to preserve peace.
Colombia responded with a letter to the UN Security Council “about Venezuela’s threats of using force against Colombia,” a foreign ministry statement said, asking that the letter be distributed to all members of the council.
The formal complaint could further anger Chavez, the fiery leftist revolutionary who once called former US president George W. Bush “the devil.”
“We’ve handed over a letter explaining in detail concerns Colombia has about remarks by President Chavez and other sensitive matters,” Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said at an APEC Summit in Singapore.
“We have always said the door for dialogue is open ... We have still not had any contact,” he said.
Recriminations have increased recently, with Colombia accusing Chavez of not helping to combat drug-running rebels hiding out on Venezuela’s side of the border and Chavez characterizing Colombia as a lap-dog of the US “empire.”
“Prepare yourselves for war,” Chavez told his military commanders during his regular Sunday TV program. “If you want peace you have to be ready for war.”
He has since softened his rhetoric, and on Wednesday said the media had manipulated his words.
“Venezuela’s military is pacifist,” he said, adding that all nations use their armies to defend against invasion.
The spat is unlikely to lead to armed conflict along the lengthy border separating the countries. But the tensions have reduced bilateral trade, which amounted to more than US$7 billion last year.
Both Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe tend to get domestic political mileage out of the verbal sparring.
Washington sees Uribe as a buffer against Chavez and other leftists in the region such as Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, which also shares a border with Colombia.
Meanwhile, a prominent opponent of Chavez back home accused his government of turning a blind eye to Colombian rebels in border areas of Venezuela.
Tachira state Governor Cesar Perez said both leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups from Colombia operate in nearly a third of his border state, but Venezuelan troops ignore the rebels and try to root out only the right-wing militias.
“The guerrillas are there with the government’s blessing and the military has orders to leave them alone,” Perez said in an interview. “The government only fights the paramilitaries, and I think it’s good they fight them, but the government has to do the same with the guerrillas, and it isn’t doing that.”
Chavez has long denied aiding Colombian rebels, saying his government remains neutral in Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict. He says he has ordered Venezuela’s military to confront any illegal armed group that slips across the border.
Colombian rebels have used Venezuela’s side of the 2,300km border for years as a haven to resupply and treat their wounded, creating friction with Bogota.
Tachira’s state police are incapable of confronting the illegal groups, Perez said, because Venezuela’s government confiscated all of its assault rifles, leaving roughly half of the state’s 2,700-officer force with old .38 caliber revolvers.
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