Venezuela sends its bombers to halt border raids

Times On Line April 02, 2003 From David Adams in Arauca, Colombia

VENEZUELA sent its air force to bomb Colombian paramilitary fighters who had invaded its territory and attacked an army border patrol, President Chávez claimed during his weekly television broadcast.

The paramilitaries retreated after a 90-minute gun battle, according to Señor Chávez. “I said to bomb the area, not on direct targets but over the adjacent area to warn them,” he said. “We did it, it was effective and they withdrew toward Colombian territory.”

The attack has not been confirmed by Colombia, whose President Uribe is due to meet Señor Chávez shortly to discuss border controls.

The incident highlights increasing tensions along the lawless, 1,400-mile (2,200km) sparsely populated border of jungle, mountain and savanna, which is a haven for rival paramilitary forces and two guerrilla armies fighting for control of the drug trade.

Colombian officials accuse Señor Chávez, a leftist revolutionary, of not doing enough to prevent guerrillas carrying out hit-and-run attacks from bases inside Venezuela. Colombian police and army posts in the border province of Arauca report coming under rebel mortar fire from across the muddy, 110-yard-wide river that marks the border, using customised 100lb gas cylinders packed with explosives, glass, nails and human excrement.

Some officials accuse Señor Chávez of providing the guerrillas with secret logistical support but the Venezuelans say Colombia does not do enough to prevent its long-running civil conflict from spilling over the border. According to Colombian intelligence reports, guerrillas operate at least two camps in Venezuela, where rebels are given weapons and explosives training. Colombian military sources claim that guerrillas obtain guns from corrupt Venezuelan military officers in exchange for cocaine. They say about 20 per cent of captured guerrilla weapons are stamped with Venezuelan Military Industry markings.

Captured guerrillas and deserters have confirmed the reports. One defector, an 18-year-old commander with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), said she had travelled in and out of Venezuela at will, visiting Farc bases and training new recruits in Venezuela. “The guerrilla (commanders) are counting on Venezuela for their victory,” she said.

Recently Venezuela has shown signs of co-operation. Last month its soldiers, acting on Colombian intelligence, intercepted a 3,000lb lorry bomb that Farc rebels had planned to use to blow up a bridge across the border. Venezuela also arrested three suspected National Liberation Army rebels accused of planting a bomb that killed seven people in the Colombian border city of Cucuta.