The presidents of Colombia and Venezuela will meet today in a new high-level bid to calm a row between the two neighbors that has sparked concerns of a regional military conflict.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will hold their summit at a yet-to-be-decided location in Colombian territory to discuss their bilateral relation, Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin announced after a meeting in Bogota on Sunday with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro.
Maduro attended Santos’ presidential swearing-in ceremony on Saturday.
Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia on July 22, one week after Santos’ predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, accused it of harboring some 1,500 leftist rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army, Colombia’s second-largest guerrilla force.
Chavez, who has strongly denied the charge and sent additional troops to his border with Colombia, said in Caracas that he was willing to “turn the page” and work with Colombia’s new president.
“Today I’ll go to bed a happy man,” Chavez said after the summit was announced.
He said the venue had not been decided, but that both sides were “evaluating” several options.
NEW START
“We’ll be working hard for [today’s] meeting ... It’s going to be the start of a new relationship for the good of both countries,” Chavez assured.
Holguin said in Bogota that the two countries aimed “to restore relations within a framework of transparency.”
Leftist Chavez and conservative Uribe also faced-off late last year after Colombia signed a military base agreement with the US. Chavez called that deal destabilizing for the region and severed diplomatic ties with Bogota.
Colombia is the chief US ally in the region, and Chavez, since he took office in 1999, has been a thorn in the side of both. He often lambasts what he calls the US “empire,” and accuses Washington of seeking to undermine his leftist government. Santos served as former defense minister under Uribe from 2006 to last year, and was instrumental in Uribe’s crackdown against FARC and other leftist guerrillas in Colombia.
He took command of a March 2008 raid on a FARC camp inside Ecuador — an ally of Venezuela — that also triggered a crisis with both Quito and Caracas. Ecuador, shortly after, broke off diplomatic relations with Bogota.
Twenty-five people were killed in the raid, including the rebel group’s second-in-command, Raul Reyes, and documents were found allegedly showing links between the rebels and the Chavez administration. On Sunday, Holguin met with her Ecuadoran counterpart Ricardo Patino.
JOINT PROGRAMS
Both agreed to meet again “in the next few weeks” to discuss joint development programs along their shared border area, as a first step to restore diplomatic relations.
In a joint statement, Patino welcomed as “a significant and important” event Colombia’s delivery to Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa — who attended Santos’ inauguration — of the alleged FARC documents found during the raid.
“We’ll continue working with the full commitment of the Colombian government toward restoring normal relations” with Ecuador, Holguin said.
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