Chavez deploys military units in Colombia row
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrives at Simon Bolivar's tomb in Caracas July 24, 2010, Chavez is attending a ceremony to mark the birthday of independence hero Bolivar at Caracas' national cemetery.
Credit: Reuters/Jorge Silva
CARACAS |
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday said he deployed military units to repel a possible attack after Colombia claimed last week his country harbored leftist rebels, but said he hoped to mend ties soon.
Chavez severed relations with U.S. ally Colombia last week over Bogota's charges his oil exporting country allowed Colombian guerrillas to stay in camps.
He has since said Colombia was preparing a military attack. Colombia denies the charge, and most analysts say a war between the countries is very unlikely.
"I should tell you we have deployed units to defend our sovereignty in case of an aggression, air defense units, air units, infantry, special operations," Chavez said in a phone call to a state TV station, adding that a Colombian aircraft had violated Venezuela airspace for five minutes this week.
"We don't want to hurt anybody. We don't want to cause alarm in the population," said Chavez, who has seized on the dispute with Colombia to rally supporters ahead of parliamentary elections on September 26.
This week Venezuelan soldiers visited sites Colombia says are established military bases, but they found only derelict buildings, Chavez said. In one case, the coordinate given by Colombia led soldiers to a rock in a river, he said.
"Last night I said to the guys, "lift the rock," sure it's not a big stone, but you never know, there might be a tunnel," he said. "Maybe under the stone there is a tunnel and a camp, Vietnam-style."
On Sunday he threatened to cut oil supplies to the United States, who he says is behind the alleged plan to invade, in case of military aggression from Colombia. The threat is a common one for Chavez, but he has never followed through and oil and debt markets shrugged off the news.
The socialist leader said he believed the outgoing conservative government of President Alvaro Uribe, who he described as "obsessed," might still attack Venezuela, but said his Foreign Minister will meet with Colombia's new government, which takes office on August 7.
Close Uribe ally Juan Manuel Santos, a former defense minister who will become president next week, wants to improve relations with Venezuela because the festering dispute has cost Colombia billions of dollars in lost trade.
Chavez did not say where he had sent the forces, or how many were deployed. Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez on Thursday promised no attack was planned.
Two years ago, Chavez ordered tanks to the border in protest at a Colombian bombing raid on a guerrilla base in Ecuador. It was never clear if the tanks were mobilized.
A former soldier, Chavez says he would not launch an offensive against another country, but has spent billions retooling his armed forces because he says the OPEC nation is vulnerable to a U.S.-backed invasion.
Venezuela has proposed a wide-reaching peace plan to end Colombia's four-decade civil war, saying it is a victim of violent groups that spill over the border. Uribe has wanted Chavez to take action against guerrillas he say launch dozens of attacks from Venezuela.
Chavez denies his government supports the rebels, but says he cannot take sides in the Colombia's war. He also recognizes that much of Venezuela's 1,375-mile (2,200-km) border with Colombia is porous and vulnerable.
(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Stacey Joyce)
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At no time did Chavez do the reasonable thing – offer to escort Columbian officials to those sites to inspect them for themselves. That’s what you would expect of an above-board, honest government that had nothing to hide. But then, that’s not what Columbia is dealing with here, is it?
Chavez is part of Columba’s problem and should be treated as such. He’s using the Columbia rebels as a military auxiliary for his personal use. In all liklihood, using them to assassinate his political rivals.
Since the rebels wish to enter into a dialogue with the new Columbian government, the government should meet with them and try to ascertain, somewhere in the process, the extent of Chavez’ involvement with them.
If the new goevrnment was smart, they would try to negotiate a deal with the rebels to rub out the cartels for them.
At no time did Chavez do the reasonable thing – offer to escort Columbian officials to those sites to inspect them for themselves. That’s what you would expect of an above-board, honest government that had nothing to hide. But then, that’s not what Columbia is dealing with here, is it?
Chavez is part of Columba’s problem and should be treated as such. He’s using the Columbia rebels as a military auxiliary for his personal use. In all liklihood, using them to assassinate his political rivals.
Since the rebels wish to enter into a dialogue with the new Columbian government, the government should meet with them and try to ascertain, somewhere in the process, the extent of Chavez’ involvement with them.
If the new goevrnment was smart, they would try to negotiate a deal with the rebels to rub out the cartels for them.
The designs the US has on Venezuela are an open secret. Colombia, which has a common boarder with Venezuela is ruled by US-dominated interests, local and overseas,and soaked with drug funds.
The Colombian government has no interest in a stable country. Its finance, all packed in US ration boxes, is assured so long as there are drug cartels and rebels in the jungles. One would have thought that over the decades, every single inch of the jungles would have been recovered, with the help of the US military presence and massive military aid. Not so.
Attacking Venezuela and underlining its democratic government is an objective blessed by the US, and would help maintain the flow of US taxpayer money to the politicians in Bogotá.
A game played so many times, it is almost boring!
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