CARACAS – Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez severed relations with neighbour Colombia after Bogota presented evidence it said showed 1,500 Colombian left-wing guerrillas were hiding in Venezuelan territory.
The Venezuelan leader yesterday called the Colombian accusations a US-inspired “aggression” and said he was ordering “a maximum alert” on his country’s border with its Andean neighbour.
“We have no other choice but, out of dignity, to totally break our relations with our brother nation of Colombia,” Mr Chávez said live on state television, as he hosted a visit by Argentine soccer idol Diego Maradona.
The two Andean neighbours who share a long, porous border have squabbled on and off for years, stoking fears of an eventual military confrontation between the two oil producers.
Mr Chávez made the announcement after Colombia presented to the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington photographs and maps it said showed that the Colombian rebels were sheltering in a string of jungle and bush camps inside Venezuela. He blamed the rift with Bogota on outgoing Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, whom he called “crazed”. He said the US had incited Mr Uribe to attack Venezuela.
However Mr Chávez said he hoped Colombia’s newly-elected president, Juan Manuel Santos, who will take office on August 7th, would help restore relations to normal.
At the OAS meeting in Washington, Colombian ambassador Luis Alfonso Hoyos accused Mr Chávez’s government of tolerating rebels he said carried out killings, kidnappings and drug-trafficking on both sides of the frontier. “The continent cannot allow this nightmare to spread,” Mr Hoyos said.
He demanded that Venezuela allow an international commission and journalists to inspect the 87 sites where he said Colombian rebels were sheltering on Venezuelan soil.
Venezuelan ambassador Roy Chaderton rejected the Colombian presentation as a lie. “There is no evidence . . . These are photos taken I don’t know where.”
Mr Chavez’s government says the latest Colombian accusations are aimed at derailing steps to repair bilateral ties before Mr Santos takes office.
Mr Hoyos showed a series of photographs and videos of alleged Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, leaders and guerrillas relaxing, roasting pigs and playing a piano at camps he said were well inside Venezuela.
“Facts over recent weeks show that real risks are materialising due to the consolidated, active and growing presence of these terrorist groups in Venezuela,” Mr Hoyos said.
He added the Venezuelan authorities “tolerate the presence of these groups, they don’t carry out actions against them”. Sometimes the rebels were even accompanied by members of Venezuela’s National Guard, Mr Hoyos added.
Farc rebels carried out cross-border attacks from Venezuela as recently as June and July, Mr Hoyos said. – (Reuters)