COLOMBIA / VENEZUELA: After a near breach in relations earlier this year, mutual necessity and shared traditions have drawn Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and Colombian leader Alvaro Uribe back together.
Over the weekend the two leaders hugged, called each other "brother" and, as a youth orchestra from Venezuela played classical tunes, chatted amiably in the shade of an enormous ceiba tree near the spot where Latin American independence leader Simon Bolivar died in 1830.
Mr Uribe invited Mr Chavez here to mark the 175th anniversary of the death of Bolivar, whom both countries claim as a founding father.
After two hours of talks on Saturday, they announced a series of economic initiatives. But the emphasis was clearly on repairing ties that had frayed.
The low point came in January, when agents acting on behalf of Mr Uribe's government spirited Colombian guerrilla leader Rodrigo Granda out of the Venezuelan capital and jailed him. Venezuela recalled its ambassador and suspended commercial relations for a month. Later Mr Chavez accused Colombia of playing host to his enemies.
The tension might have been compounded by the leaders' ideological differences - Mr Uribe is a right-leaning friend of the United States, while Mr Chavez emulates Cuba's Fidel Castro. But the two countries need each other too much to remain estranged.
Mr Uribe wants continued access to Venezuela's markets (the second-largest destination for Colombian goods after the US) as well as the continued goodwill of its government toward the estimated one million Colombians living and working there.
For Mr Chavez, good relations with Colombia are essential because he has ambitious plans to export crude oil to Central America and China, and a pipeline to the Pacific would have to run through Colombia.
Venezuelan energy minister Rafael Ramirez said the two countries were moving forward on such a plan. "Both governments now understand that to be on the permanent edge of crisis is damaging to both," said Bogota political commentator Vicente Torrijos.
LA Times-Washington Post Service