Venezuela-Colombia border show cheers end of crisis
By Fabian Andres Cambero
VILLA DEL ROSARIO, Colombia, March 16 (Reuters) - Two weeks ago Venezuela promised to line the Colombian border with tanks -- but on Sunday tens of thousands of concert goers crowded the frontier to celebrate how the tanks never arrived.
From a stage on the bridge linking the countries, pop stars including Spain's Alejandro Sanz and Colombian rock singer Juanes led the "Peace Without Borders" concert to cheer the resolution of the Andes' worst diplomatic crisis in years.
The crisis began when Colombian forces attacked leftist guerrillas in Ecuador. This prompted Ecuador to cut ties with Colombia and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to order troops and tanks to the border, although the three nations resolved the dispute before the tanks arrived.
"This is a celebration of the unity between Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia," Colombian singer Carlos Vives said from the stage.
"We want our police and military officers to go home," he said, calling on leftist FARC guerrillas to release hostages held as part of Colombia's four-decade-old civil war.
Tens of thousands of fans gathered below the international Simon Bolivar bridge to see the lineup, which also included Dominican merengue star Juan Luis Guerra and Mexican pop-rock band Mana.
Concert organizers said more than 100,000 people turned out, some walking several miles from the Colombian side.
The conflict had pitted U.S. antagonist Chavez, the leader of a resurgent Latin American left, against conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Washington's closest ally in the region. (Writing by Brian Ellsworth, editing by Philip Barbara)
