Chavez Orders Troops To Colombian Border
(CNN) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Sunday ordered his military to move 10 battalions to the country’s border with Colombia, and ordered the closure of the Venezuelan embassy in Colombia’s capital.
He made the comments on his weekly Sunday talk show “Alo Presidente,” or “Hello, President.”
The move was in apparent reaction to Colombia’s joint operation Saturday in Ecuador that resulted in the death of the second-in-command of the FARC Colombian rebels group.
Chavez condemned the operation Saturday, saying the Colombian government violated Ecuador’s sovereignty. He said if the operation had been conducted in Venezuela, he would have declared war against Colombia.
“Colombia’s government recognizes — in a happy and irresponsible attitude — that it has violated the sovereignty of a neighbor country. And that’s worrisome,” he said.
“President Uribe, think well. Don’t think about doing that over here, don’t think it. Because it would very serious, a military raid in Venezuelan territory would be ‘causus belli.’ There is not any excuse.”
Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos denied that Colombia violated Ecuadoran airspace in the joint operation that killed Luis Edgar Devia Silva, known as “Raul Reyes.”
The operation, which involved Colombian air forces attacking a FARC camp from the Colombian side, also involved Colombia’s national police Santos said. Reyes was among 17 killed.
Santos also said Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had spoken to Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa to inform him on the activities.
The White House weighed in on the situation Sunday, saying, “We’re monitoring the situation.”
“This is an odd reaction by Venezuela to Colombia’s efforts against the FARC, a terrorist organization that continues to hold Colombians, Americans and others hostage,” spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
FARC is the Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The Marxist group has been trying for some 40 years to overthrow the Colombian government.
On Wednesday, the group released four former Colombian lawmakers who were among the estimated 750 hostages the group has held in the jungles of Colombia.
In the past two months, FARC has released six hostages overall. Reyes, who was a member of the seven-man FARC leadership council, known as the general secretariat, had played a key mediation role in the release of those hostages.
Chavez, whose left-wing political philosophy comes closer than that of Colombia’s rightist leaders to the stated doctrines of FARC, brokered the two deals to release hostages.
