Bush backs Colombia over Venezuela "provocation"

By Patrick Markey

BOGOTA (Reuters) - President George W. Bush backed Colombia on Tuesday in an escalating Andean crisis as Venezuela moved troops to its border and Colombia accused President Hugo Chavez of genocide for supporting rebels.

Chavez has warned that war could break out after Colombian forces bombed inside a neighboring South American state, Ecuador, to kill a leading leftist rebel.

Bush weighed in on the crisis for the first time since Saturday's raid, accusing Chavez's "regime" of provocation and saying the superpower opposed any act of aggression that could destabilize the region. Chavez has in the past raised the specter of a U.S. attack on his OPEC nation and said he would cut off oil exports.

Bush told reporters about a telephone call with President Alvaro Uribe in which he said "America would continue to stand with Colombia."

The conservative Uribe, whose government receives billions of dollars in U.S. military aid, threatened to take Chavez to international court for backing Colombian rebels' "genocide." Colombia says the raid unearthed evidence Chavez recently paid the rebels $300 million -- something Venezuela denies.

"We are not warmongers, but we are not weak. We cannot allow terrorists who seek refuge in other countries to spill the blood of our countrymen," Uribe said.

Ecuador and Venezuela have cut diplomatic ties with Colombia in the crisis.

Uribe also accuses Chavez's leftist ally in Ecuador, President Rafael Correa, of supporting the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).