Nicaragua breaks Colombia ties

By Ivan Castro

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaragua broke off diplomatic ties with Colombia on Thursday, widening a Latin American crisis over a raid by Colombia on a rebel camp inside Ecuador last Saturday.

Venezuela and Ecuador have also cut relations with Colombia and poured troops to their frontiers with the U.S.-backed state in reaction to the cross-border raid, which prompted leftist allies in Latin America to line up against Colombia.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, an ex-guerrilla whose country is in a territorial dispute with Colombia, said he was breaking off relations "in solidarity" with Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who was visiting Managua.

Ortega's move strengthened the leftist alliance that has formed around Ecuador and Venezuela and left their neighbor, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, increasingly isolated and under pressure to apologize.

"We are breaking with the terrorist politics that Alvaro Uribe's government is employing," Ortega said.

With governments worldwide, including the United States and Russia, calling for a negotiated solution, Colombia played down worries that the dispute could escalate into what would be the first military conflict between Latin America nations in more than a decade.

"I don't think there is a risk of war. The Colombian government has been very clear it won't use force," Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos told Reuters during a visit to Brussels for talks with EU officials.

"It won't fall into the game of provocation."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who says socialism can unite South America against what it calls "U.S. imperialism," jumped into the dispute during the weekend, warning war could break out.

He had been feuding for months with Colombia over his efforts at mediating the release of hostages held by the FARC guerrillas. A FARC leader who was negotiating hostage releases was among those killed in the Colombian cross-border raid.

BUSH-CHAVEZ DIVIDE

The Pentagon said a military conflict is unlikely -- and international investors generally agree. Wall Street economists said they expect the crisis to blow over despite the leaders' brinkmanship and risks of military missteps.

But the crisis has exposed divisions across the region.

A self-styled socialist revolutionary and Cuba ally, Chavez is the leader of a left-wing group of Latin American nations who get financial aid from Venezuela, a major oil exporting nation.

Most Latin American countries support Colombia against the Marxist rebels of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. But many, including diplomatic heavyweight Brazil, have also condemned Uribe for the raid and demanded he apologize to Ecuador.