Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has frozen bilateral accords and energy deals with Colombia in retaliation for the abduction of a leading Colombian Marxist rebel from Venezuela.
Chavez stopped short of breaking diplomatic relations with Bogota but demanded a public apology from Colombian President Alvaro Uribe for what he called a violation of Venezuela's sovereignty.
The Venezuelan sanctions signaled the worst crisis in recent years between the two Andean neighbors, which are major trade partners but have often squabbled over the spillover of violence from Colombia's four-decades-old civil war.
Chavez announced the measure after recalling his ambassador from Bogota this week. This was in protest against a Colombian police operation in December that Venezuela says kidnapped Rodrigo Granda, foreign relations chief of the FARC rebel group, from the Venezuelan capital.
"Our ambassador will not return until the Colombian government apologizes," Chavez, a firebrand nationalist first elected in 1998, told the National Assembly.
"I have ordered all agreements and business with Colombia to be stopped," he said.
In a cautious reply, the Colombian government denied the action of its security services had violated Venezuelan sovereignty and said in a statement it was ready to discuss any issue with its neighbor.
Chavez, a former paratrooper, made clear he was furious with Colombia about the kidnap of Granda, a prominent figure in the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) which is fighting to try to seize power in Colombia.
Venezuela says Colombian police bribed five members of an elite Venezuelan National Guard anti-kidnap squad to seize the FARC rebel in central Caracas and carry him across the border into Colombia. The five Venezuelans have been arrested.
Colombian authorities originally said they captured Granda on Dec. 13 inside Colombia but later admitted they paid a reward.
This case has really hurt me," Chavez said in an emotional personal reproach to Uribe. He said he did not believe the Colombian President really knew about the kidnap operation but urged him to apologize.
"Otherwise, Mr President, my friend, this just becomes the law of the jungle," Chavez said.
Venezuelan Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez said Venezuela would ask Bogota for the extradition of the Colombian officials and police Caracas says directed the kidnap