Colombia and Venezuela were expected to reestablish ties yesterday as their leaders meet to try to defuse a diplomatic crisis over accusations Caracas is harboring Colombian guerrillas.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos moved swiftly after his inauguration on Saturday to seek to end the simmering dispute between the two neighbors.
He was to meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Santa Marta, Colombia, yesterday, at the site where South American independence hero Simon Bolivar died in 1830.
Santos told Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva by telephone late on Monday that the two countries were to resume ties “in the coming hours,” a presidential spokesman in Brasilia said.
Yesterday’s meeting aimed to restore trade and diplomatic links broken by Chavez on July 22 after the former Colombian government of Alvaro Uribe claimed that 1,500 guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army were operating in Venezuela.
Relations between Colombia and Venezuela already suffered in July last year when Chavez froze ties after Bogota agreed to give the US access to seven military bases to fight cocaine production and trafficking.
Many observers saw the change in the Colombian leadership as an opportunity to defuse tensions that saw Chavez order troops to the border last Friday.
“The difficulty in the relations had a lot to do with the problems between presidents Chavez and Alvaro Uribe and the change of government in Colombia makes it possible to open doors,” said border expert Ricardo Abello from Colombia’s El Rosario University.
“I’m a great optimist regarding the building of peace between Venezuela and Colombia,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday.
Colombia and Venezuela share a vast land border of more than 2,000km and bilateral trade represented US$6 billion in 2008.
Colombian exports, however, fell more than 70 percent between January and May this year, compared with the same period last year, according to official figures.
In his inaugural address, Santos — who was defense minister under Uribe — called for “frank and direct” dialogue with Chavez.
Chavez responded by calling for Colombian guerrillas to free hostages and give up their armed conflict.
Santos also has moved to improve relations with socialist Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who is a Chavez ally.
As defense minister, Santos ordered a cross-border raid on a FARC camp in Ecuador in March 2008 that killed the guerrilla organization’s No. 2, Raul Reyes, at a cost of its relations with Quito.
Santos has now turned over Reyes’ captured laptop computer in a conciliatory gesture.
Uribe, a political conservative and staunch US ally, is still facing off with leftist Chavez after leaving office on Saturday.
Uribe’s former attorney said on Monday that the ex-president was willing to testify against Chavez in a case filed at the International Criminal Court on behalf of Colombian victims of FARC violence.
Jaime Granados said that the case was filed last Friday along with another against the Venezuelan state at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Both cases related to the alleged presence of FARC guerrilla camps in Venezuela.
Uribe late on Sunday used his Twitter account to call on Chavez to stop insulting him, urging the leftist leader to “stop being a coward by hurling insults at a distance.”
Chavez slammed Uribe just after he left office as a “lackey of the Yankee empire,” and said that during his eight years as president he took Colombia down the path of “blood and war.”
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS