Chavez sends troops to Colombia border
BREAKING NEWS
The Associated Press
updated 1:55 p.m. ET, Sun., March. 2, 2008
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez on Sunday
ordered thousands of troops to the border with Colombia after Colombia's
military killed a top rebel leader.
Chavez told his defense minister: "Move 10 battalions for
me to the border with Colombia, immediately." He also ordered the Venezuelan
Embassy in Colombia closed and said all embassy personnel would be withdrawn.
The announcements by Venezuela's leftist leader pushed
relations to their tensest point of his nine-year presidency, and Chavez warned
that Colombia could spark a war in South America.
He called the U.S.-allied government in Bogota "a
terrorist state" and labeled President Alvaro Uribe "a criminal."
The leftist leader warned that Colombia’s slaying of
rebel spokesman Raul Reyes could spark a war.
“It wasn’t any combat. It was a cowardly murder, all of
it coldly calculated,” Chavez said.
“We pay tribute to a true revolutionary, who was Raul
Reyes,” Chavez said, recalling that he had met rebel in Brazil in 1995 and
calling him a “good revolutionary.”
Chavez: Colombia 'the Israel' of
region
Chavez said he had just spoken to Ecuadorean President Rafael
Correa and that Ecuador was also sending troops to its border with Colombia.
“The Colombian government has become the Israel of Latin
America,” an agitated Chavez said, mentioning another country that he has
criticized for its military strikes. “We aren’t going to permit Colombia to
become the Israel of these lands.”
Chavez accused Uribe of being a puppet of Washington and
acting on behalf of the U.S. government, saying “Dracula’s fangs (are) are
covered in blood.”
“Some day Colombia will be freed from the hand of the
(U.S.) empire,” Chavez said. “We have to liberate Colombia,” he added, saying
Colombia’s people will eventually do away with its government.
The U.S. State Department had no immediate reaction to
Chavez’s comments.
On Saturday, Chavez cautioned Uribe against similar
military strikes along Venezuela’s border.
“Don’t think about doing that over here, because it would
very serious, it would be cause for war,” Chavez said. “How far is President
Uribe willing to go in his warlike madness?”
Chavez, who maintains warm relations with the Colombian
guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said that
“it was obscene to see the smiling faces” of Colombian military commanders
standing behind Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos as he announced
the death of FARC spokesman Raul Reyes and 16 other rebels on Saturday.
Colombia defends incursion
On Sunday,
Colombia defended its decision to carry out the raid, saying it acted in
self-defense.
“The terrorists, among them Raul Reyes, have had the
custom of killing in Colombia and taking refuge in the territory of neighboring
countries. Many times Colombia has suffered from this situation that we must
avoid to protect our citizens,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.
Ecuador has done little to try to remove the heavily
armed fighters from Colombia’s conflict who cross the long, porous border into
its territory.
Colombia’s military tracked Reyes’ location through an
informant and bombed a camp on its side of the Ecuadorean border, where Reyes
was thought to be, Santos said. Ground troops moved in but came under attack
from another camp across the border in Ecuador. When the military overran that
camp, they found Reyes’ body, Santos said.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said Uribe had
informed him of the raid but later announced that he was misled after Ecuadorean
officials inspected a bombed rebel camp.
Ecuador: 'Airspace was violated'
“The
(Colombian) president either was poorly informed or brazenly lied to the
president of Ecuador,” said Correa, who called home the ambassador to Colombia
for consultation and promised a diplomatic note of protest.
“Clearly Ecuadorean airspace was violated” in the
bombing, Correa said.
Uribe earlier called Reyes’ death a step forward in
defeating terrorism.
“Today we’ve taken another step in the process of
recuperating the respect of the people of Colombia, the respect that our people
deserve,” Uribe told a news conference.
Combatants in Colombia’s bitter four-decade conflict
frequently cross borders with Ecuador and Venezuela, creating friction between
the neighbors.
Colombia and Venezuela have been locked in a diplomatic
crisis since November, when Uribe ended Chavez’s official role negotiating a
proposed hostages-for-prisoners swap.
Nevertheless, the FARC freed four hostages to Venezuelan
officials last week, and they were reunited with their families in Caracas. It
was the second unilateral release by the FARC this year.
Chavez has recently angered Uribe by urging world leaders
to classify the leftist rebels as “insurgents” rather than “terrorists.”
The FARC has proposed trading some 40 remaining
high-value captives, including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid
Betancourt and three U.S. defense contractors, for hundreds of imprisoned
guerrillas.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23435878/
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