Story last updated at 7:11 a.m. Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Charleston.net-Chicago Tribune

HAVANA--Hoping to defuse a potentially dangerous confrontation, the leaders of Colombia and Venezuela are scheduled to meet today after weeks of bickering and the allegation that the Venezuelan air force bombed a Colombian border town last month.

The incident, which is being investigated by both governments, is only the latest in a series of actions that has angered officials from the two nations and threatens to widen Colombia's internal conflict.

Colombian officials accuse Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of not doing enough to prevent Colombian rebels from carrying out hit-and-run attacks using bases inside Venezuela.

They also are angered by the recent bombing of the Colombian consulate in Venezuela and the sharp drop in bilateral trade during Venezuela's prolonged political crisis, a further blow to Colombia's fragile economy.

"It's a very difficult situation," said one top Colombian official. "We've tried to work things out. There has been lots of talk (from the Venezuelans) but no action."

Chavez and other officials deny that the air force attacked targets in Colombia or that Venezuela is supporting Colombia's largest rebel group, the 18,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

While Chavez has expressed hopes that his meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will ease tensions, Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel has criticized Colombian officials for suggesting that his country is providing a haven to the rebels.

"If Colombian delinquents have come into this country, then this is more the result of negligence and complicity by the Colombian authorities, rather than by us Venezuelans," Rangel said.

Experts say the outcome of the presidential summit in the southeast Venezuelan city of Puerto Ordaz could have repercussions for the United States. Venezuela and to a lesser extent Colombia are major oil suppliers.

The United States also has poured more than $2 billion into an extensive antinarcotics and counterinsurgency program in Colombia, a close American ally and one of a handful of Latin American countries that supported the war in Iraq.

A broader conflict between Venezuela and Colombia could destabilize the region, experts say.

"The situation is very dangerous," said Michael Shifter, a senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C. "There is an enormous amount at stake."

Relations between the two nations have been up and down almost since Venezuela broke away from its neighbor more than a century ago. But the tension increased after Chavez was elected president in 1998 and began his self-styled populist revolution.

Some Colombian officials say the Chavez government has failed to act firmly against the FARC, a powerful rebel force that moves frequently across the sparsely populated 1,270-mile frontier of mountain, savanna and jungle.

When peace talks between the FARC and the Colombian government collapsed last year, Colombia's military began battling the rebels for control of the border region along with a third group, the powerful right-wing paramilitary force known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, AUC.

Experts say that FARC has used the Venezuelan side of the frontier as a rear base and for arms trafficking and other logistical support.

Rafael Nieto, a Colombian military analyst, said many captured FARC soldiers have been found with Venezuelan military-issue weapons, though it is unclear how the rebels acquired them.

The AUC, which often operates alongside the Colombian military, has moved across the frontier to pursue FARC rebels and fighters with a smaller Colombian leftist insurgency, the National Liberation Army, or ELN. Some Venezuelan ranchers reportedly are bankrolling paramilitary forces.

What is uncertain, experts say, is the extent to which the Venezuelan and Colombian governments can prevent either leftist or rightist insurgencies from crossing the border.

CNN Wednesday, April 23, 2003 Posted: 7:43 AM EDT (1143 GMT)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela's president said he will sign an agreement with Colombia to build a gas pipeline connecting the two nations, part of efforts to reinforce ties at a time of tense bilateral relations.

President Hugo Chavez is to meet with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday in the southeastern Venezuelan city of Puerto Ordaz, located 310 miles from Caracas.

Chavez said Tuesday that he's committed to improving relations with Colombia despite allegations by authorities from the neighboring country that Venezuela has sheltered Colombian rebels.

"We sent our affection and our best intention to continue improving relations with the sister republic of Colombia," said Chavez.

The two leaders will also discuss trade issues sign an agreement in which Venezuela would supply border towns in rural Colombia with electricity.

Trade between the two nations topped $2 billion over the last two years but has suffered severely since January 22, when Venezuela halted foreign currency purchases to protect foreign reserves and guard against a slide in the bolivar.

Colombian businesses haven't been able to collect an estimated $350 million in debts from Venezuelan importers due to delays in establishing a new foreign exchange system.

According to the Colombian Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce and Integration, bilateral trade could fall by as much as 60 percent this year if such problems persist.

Border security will also be discussed at the meeting, which follows several weeks of tensions fueled by allegations in Colombia that Venezuela has provided a safe haven for Colombian rebel groups.

Chavez denies his government has ever aided Colombia's leftist insurgent groups, and he said groups in both countries are trying ruin the two neighbors' relationship. He expressed optimism the meeting would be a success despite efforts by his adversaries aimed at "sabotaging" it.

The presidential summit will be the second that Chavez and Uribe have held in less than six months. The last meeting took place on November 14 in Colombia's coastal city of Santa Marta.

Posted on Wed, Apr. 23, 2003 FABIOLA SANCHEZ KansasCity.com-Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela -Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez meets with his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, on Wednesday to discuss border security and trade at a moment when bilateral relations are tense.

Chavez said he's committed to improving relations with Colombia despite recent allegations by authorities from the neighboring country that Venezuela has sheltered Colombian rebels.

"We sent our affection and our best intention to continue improving relations with the sister republic of Colombia," Chavez said Tuesday.

Chavez denies his government has ever aided Colombia's leftist insurgent groups. He has said groups in both countries are trying ruin the neighbors' relationship, but he said he's optimistic that Wednesday's meeting would be a success despite his adversaries' efforts to "sabotage" it.

The South American leaders also are to sign a pact to build a natural gas pipeline connecting the two nations and an agreement in which Venezuela would supply border towns in rural Colombia with electricity, Chavez said.

Trade between the two nations, which topped US$2 billion over the last two years, will also be discussed at the summit in the southeastern city of Puerto Ordaz, located 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Caracas.

Trade with Colombia has suffered severely since Jan. 22, when Venezuela halted foreign exchange purchases to protect foreign reserves and guard against a slide in the bolivar currency.

Colombian businesses haven't been able to collect an estimated US$350 million in debts from Venezuelan importers because of delays in setting up a new foreign exchange scheme.

According to estimates from the Colombian Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce and Integration, bilateral trade could fall by as much as 60 percent this year if such problems persist.

The presidential summit will be the second that Chavez and Uribe have held in less than six months. The last meeting took place on Nov. 14 in Colombia's coastal city of Santa Marta.

<a href=www.voanews.com>VOA News 23 Apr 2003, 00:05 UTC

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe are set to hold a bilateral summit Wednesday amid rising tensions over allegations that Venezuela shelters Colombian leftist rebels.

The talks in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela come two days after Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel angrily denied that his country gives refuge to what he called delinquents of any nationality.

Mr. Rangel made his remarks in response to comments from Colombian Attorney-General Luis Camilo Osorio, who said that Venezuela has become a haven for Colombian criminals.

Mr. Rangel also accused Mr. Camilo and other Colombian officials of trying to tarnish the reputation of the Venezuelan government and ruin the relationship between the two neighbors.

President Chavez denies his government ever aided Colombian guerrillas or knowingly allowed them to slip into Venezuelan territory.

Officials in both countries say the border has become the scene of numerous skirmishes between various military and paramilitary groups.

De: "Jessica Rosenberg" jessica@obraweb.com Fecha: Mie, 23 de Abril de 2003, 5:54 pm Para: jessica@obraweb.com

WORLD NEWS: Bogotá and Caracas tensions at crisis point By Andy Webb-Vidal and James Wilson

Trembling with fear, Juana points to a Venezuelan army helicopter thudding overhead, its down-draught peeling apart the dense jungle that blankets the no-man's land between Colombia and Venezuela.

"It was one of those," says Juana, a Colombian peasant who fled across the Río del Oro river into Venezuela after, she claims, Venezuelan aircraft strafed two Colombian villages, dispersing warring rightwing and leftwing Colombian paramilitary and guerrilla factions. "They flew low, there were explosions, and the paramilitaries ran into the forest."

Juana and several hundred other refugees are witnesses to the latest and most acute case of mounting tension between Colombia's pro-US government, led by Alvaro Uribe, and the militaristic leftwing Venezuelan administration of President Hugo Chávez.

Conflicting official accounts of last month's incident provide a backdrop for a summit meeting today at which the two men - Mr Uribe, a workaholic, Mr Chávez a bombastic former paratrooper - will try to resolve their differences.

But any accord may only paper over the cracks in the countries' worsening relations. This would complicate Plan Colombia, the US-sponsored anti-narcotics and counter-insurgency programme, which would be dealt a blow if guerrillas and coca crops continued to seep out of Colombia into neighbouring countries.

Intelligence reports suggest the presence of Colombian guerrillas in Peru and Brazil, while drug crop cultivation has risen in Peru and Bolivia. But the situation on Colombia's border with Venezuela is the most critical. Mr Uribe's government is investigating what witnesses say were air strikes last month close to the villages of Tibú and La Gabarra in Colombia's Norte de Santander province, a seemingly unprecedented hostile act.

Martha Lucía Ramírez, Colombia's defence minister, said the incursion appeared to have been a "potentially grave" incident in which the Venezuelan military came to the rescue of the 18,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

At the time, Mr Chávez said he had ordered the air force to bomb an area "close" to the border after "irregulars" fired a missile at a helicopter and engaged with troops "inside" Venezuela. Local National Guardsmen said the air strikes occurred on Colombian soil a week after rightwing paramilitaries from the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), who were pursuing Farc units into Venezuela, clashed with the Venezuelan army.

Both countries have engaged in a war of words. This month Bogotá protested at accusations by José Rangel, Venezuela's vice-president, that the Colombian army colludes with the AUC.

"There are areas where Venezuela borders a de facto paramilitary state," said Mr Rangel, who has appealed for national unity in support of the Venezuelan military. "Colombia cannot continue dumping all of its delinquents and paramilitaries on its frontier."

Colombian officials suspect the Chávez government is stoking tensions to divert attention from growing economic difficulties and to rally nationalist sentiment, perhaps to cow and divide domestic opposition. The Venezuelan economy is expected to shrink 15-20 per cent this year, and opposition groups are seeking a referendum to unseat Mr Chávez. But the tensions are also being driven by opposing political sympathies.

"Uribe and Chávez are not naturally predisposed to be friendly to each other, and any spark on the border can exacerbate tensions," says Miguel Diaz, analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Mr Uribe, the US's staunchest ally in South America, is launching a military offensive against the Farc, and wants to pursue the rebels "across borders" - which the AUC already appears to be doing.

Mr Chávez, a former army officer who sees his Bolivarian revolution spreading across Latin America, strongly opposes Plan Colombia, on the grounds that it will push refugees and the warring combatants into Venezuela. A breakdown in relations between Bogotá and Caracas would all but terminate already limited cross-border security co-operation, analysts say, probably increasing the ease with which the Farc uses Venezuela as a sanctuary.

Top Venezuelan military officers deny allegations by Bogotá that they are turning a blind eye to Farc training camps in Venezuela, but concedethat irregulars may, occasionally, cross the border. "Do Colombian subversives cross into Venezuela? It's possible," says General Julio Quintero, commander of the army's 2nd Infantry Division, in San Cristóbal. "However, our mission is to expel them back to Colombia."

But Venezuelans in the border region are already alarmed by the growing presence of the Fuerzas Bolivarianas de Liberación (FBL), a leftwing paramilitary group that, cattle-ranchers say, has been created with help from Chávez officials as a kidnapping and extortion "franchise" of the Farc. "There is no doubt the guerrillas are here," says Genaro Méndez, president of the local ranchers' association. "The issue is that other groups have now been formed, such as the FBL, trained by the Colombian guerrillas." Additional reporting by James Wilson in Bogotá

Traducción

Temblando de miedo, Juana señala un helicóptero de la armada venezolana en sobrevuelo, la turbulancia generada por el aparato separa la densa jungla que cubre la tierra de nadie entre Colombia y Venezuela.

"Fue uno de esos", dice Juana, una campesina colombiana que huyó a través del Río del Oro hacia Venezuela después que, según alega, aviones venezolanos bombardearon dos poblados colombianos, dispersando una confrontación entre facciones de derecha e izquierda de los paramilitares y la guerrilla colombiana. "Volaban bajo, hubo explosiones y los paramilitares se refugiaron en la selva."

Juana y otros cientos de refugiados son testigos del más reciente y agudo evento que incrementa las tensiones entre el gobierno pro americano de Alvaro Uribe y la administración militarista de izquierda del Presidente Hugo Chávez.

Los recuentos conflictivos del incidente del mes pasado son el telón de fondo de una reunión cumbre en el día de hoy en la cual dos hombres- Uribe, un workaholic, Chávez un altisonante ex paracaidista- intentarán resolver sus diferencias.

Pero cualquier acuerdo que se logre podría tan solo ser un paño caliente sobre unas relaciones en franco deterioro. Complicaría el Plan Colombia, el programa norteamericano anti narcóticos y contra insurgente- que sufriría un fuerte revés si la guerrilla y los cultivos de coca se extienden más allá de las fronteras.

Informes de inteligencia sugieren que existe presencia de la guerrilla colombiana en Perú y Brazil, mientras que el cultivo de drogas ha aumentado en Perú y Bolivia. Pero la situación de la frontera entre Colombia y Venezuela es la más círtica. El gobierno de Uribe está investigando lo que los testigos dijeron ser ataques aéreos el mes pasado cerca de los poblados de Tibú y La Gabarra en la provincia colombiana de Norte de Santander, un acto hostíl aparentemente sin precedentes.

Martha Lucía Ramírez, Ministro de la Defensa de Colombia, dijo que la incursión había sido un incidente "potencialmenbte grave" durante el cual los militares de Venezuela fueron al rescate de la fuerza de 18,000 hombres de la Farc.

En aquel momento, Chávez dijo que había mandado a bombardear un área "cercana" a la frontera después que "irregulares" dispararan un misil a un helicoptero y se confrontaran con tropas "dentro" de Venezuela. La Guardia Nacional dijo que los ataques aéreos ocurrieron en suelo colombiano una semana después que las fuerzas paramilitares de derecha de las Autodefensas Colombianas, quienes perseguían a unidades de la FARC hasta Venezuela, se enfrentaron con el ejército venezolano.

Ambas naciones se han abocado a una guerra de palabras. Este mes Bogotá protestó las acusaciones de José Rangel, Vice Presidente de Venezuela, de que el ejército colombiano confabula con las Autodefensas de Colombia.

"Hay zonas en las que Venezuela tiene frontera con un estado paramilitar de facto," dijo Rangel, quién ha apelado por la unidad nacional en apoyo a la FFAA venezolana. "Colombia no puede seguir botando todos sus delincuentes y paramilitares en nuestra frontera."

Los oficiales colombianos sospechan que el gobierno de Chávez está atizando las tensiones para distraer la atención de las crecientes dificultades económicas y para aupar el nacionalismo, talvés para aminalar y dividir a la oposición. Se espera que la economía se encoja entre un 15 o 20% este año, y los grupos de oposición buscan tener un referendum para sacar a Chávez del poder. Pero las tensiones también son manejadas por simpatías políticas opuestas.

"Uribe y Chávez no están predispuestos naturalmente a caerse bien, y cualquier chispa en la frontera puede exacerbar las tensiones," dice Miguel Diaz, analista del Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Uribe, el más sólido aliado de los Estados Unidos en suramérica, está lanzando una ofensiva militar contra las FARC y quiere perseguir a los rebeldes "a través de las fronteras" - lo cual las Fuerzas de Defensa parecen ya estar haciendo.

Chávez, un ex oficial militar quien ve a su revolución bolivariana expandirse por América Latina, se opone fuertemente al Plan Colombia, en base a que empujaría a los refugiados y a los combatientes hacia Venezuela. Un colapso de las relaciones entre Bogotá y Caracas podría llegar a finalizar la limitada cooperación de seguridad transfronteriza, dicen los analistas, probablemente incrementando la facilidad con la que las FARC usan a Venezuela como santuario.

Oficiales militares venezolanos de alto nivel niegan el alegato de Bogotá de que estén ingonardo los campos de entenamiento de la FARC en Venezuela, pero admiten que los irregulares pueden ocasionalmente cruzar la frontera. "Cruzan los subversivos colombianos la frontera?" Es posible," dice el General Julio Quintero, comandante de la 2 División de Infantería en San Cristóbal. "Sin embargo, nuestra misión es repelerlos de vuelta a Colombia."

Pero los venezolanos en la región fronteriza están alarmados por la creciente presencia de las Fuerzas Bolivarianas de Liberación (FBL), un grupo paramilitar de izquierda que, los ganaderos dicen fue creado con ayuda de oficiales de Chávez como "franquicia" de secuestro y extorsión de las FARC. "No hay duda de que la guerrilla está aquí," dice Genaro Méndez, presidente de la asociación de ganaderos local. "El tema es que ahora se han formado otros grupos, como el FBL, entrenados por la guerrilla colombiana." Reportaje adicional de James Wilson en Bogotá las FARC. "No hay duda de que la guerrilla está aquí," dice Genaro Méndez,presidente de la asociación de ganaderos local. "El tema es que ahora se han formado otros grupos, como el FBL, entrenados por la guerrilla colombiana." Reportaje adicional de James Wilson en Bogotá