Dispute halts Colombian trade toward Venezuela

By Manuel Hernandez

LA RAYA, Venezuela (Reuters) - Colombian trade to Venezuela has been halted along the border amid a diplomatic crisis that threatens the stability of the Andean region, witnesses and a transport association said on Tuesday.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered tanks to the border after Colombian security forces killed leftist rebels in an attack on Ecuadorean territory, escalating tensions in a dispute Chavez says could lead to war.

Arsenio Manzanero, director of Venezuela's main transportation chamber, said the movement of goods was halted at three border crossings because Venezuelan customs agents were not working.

"They closed customs operations at Paraguachon, San Antonio and Urena, which means as a consequence no trucks can pass," Manzanero said in a telephone interview.

Trucks formed long lines on the Colombian side of the border. Individual drivers crossed into Venezuela normally.

Venezuela's Seniat tax agency, also in charge of customs, did not respond to requests for clarification of the situation. Military and customs officials along the border also declined to comment to Reuters.

"The customs (agents) are not working so we cannot do anything," said John Jairo Lodono, 46, a trucker waiting on the Colombian side of the border to carry a cargo of chemical solvent into Venezuela.

A Venezuelan state television report said "only the movement of Colombian cargo trucks toward Venezuela was restricted and the import of vehicles was halted."

San Antonio, in Venezuela's border state of Tachira, is the largest crossing point for Colombian goods into Venezuela.

Colombia has about $6 billion in trade per year with Venezuela, an OPEC nation that has increasingly relied on imports from its neighbor to shore up inconsistent supplies of staple foods such as milk and chicken.

(Additional reporting by Jorge Silva and Deisy Buitrago, Writing by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by John O'Callaghan)