Chavez to seal border

news24.com 24/04/2003 10:29  - (SA)  

Puerto Ordaz - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez promised at a meeting here on Wednesday with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to increase border patrols to keep armed Colombian groups from entering Venezuela.

"Call them archangels or terrorists. The important thing is to capture them," Uribe told reporters at a joint press conference with Chavez in this far eastern Venezuelan city.

Right-wing paramilitaries as well as leftist rebels often cross Colombia's borders into neighbouring countries, sometimes building rest camps and bases in remote locations.

The two presidents discussed border security and trade issues in the one-day summit.

The meeting took place amid a tense period of relations, with Bogota accusing Caracas of ignoring leftist rebel camps in its territory, and Caracas blaming the Colombian government of leniency towards right-wing paramilitaries.

Chavez, a populist, is sympathetic towards the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's largest guerrilla group, and refuses to describe them as terrorists.

Some Colombians have even accused Chavez of protecting two of the FARC's top leaders in Venezuela.

"They've even said that Saddam Hussein was in Caracas, and that Bin Laden traveled here," Chavez when asked about the charges. "I'm not going to respond to that," he said.