<a href=www.voanews.com>VOA News 24 Apr 2003, 01:57 UTC

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe have agreed to strengthen security to stop cross-border raids by Colombian leftist rebels and rightist paramilitaries.

The two presidents made the pledge Wednesday as they met in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela to smooth over relations strained by a dispute concerning border security.

The talks followed weeks of tension fueled by accusations that Venezuela harbors Colombian leftist rebels.

Earlier this week, Colombian Attorney-General Luis Camilo Osorio said in published remarks that Venezuela has become a refuge for what he called "Colombian criminals" trying to topple Mr. Uribe's government.

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

Colombia also has demanded information about reports that Venezuelan military aircraft bombed a Colombian frontier hamlet in March in support of leftist rebels battling rightist paramilitaries. Venezuela denies those reports.

Officials in both Venezuela and Colombia say the border between the two countries has been the scene of numerous skirmishes between various military and paramilitary groups.

In addition to border security, Presidents Chavez and Uribe discussed bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

<a href=www.voanews.com>VOA News 23 Apr 2003, 21:53 UTC AP

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, right, with Colombian President Alvaro UribeVenezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe have met in eastern Venezuela for talks aimed at smoothing over relations strained by a dispute concerning border security.

President Uribe flew to Puerto Ordaz for Wednesday's talks, which followed weeks of tension fueled by accusations that Venezuela harbors Colombian leftist rebels.

Earlier this week, Colombian Attorney-General Luis Camilo Osorio said in published remarks that Venezuela has become a refuge for what he called "Colombian criminals" trying to topple Mr. Uribe's government.

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

Colombia also has demanded information about reports that Venezuelan military aircraft bombed a Colombian frontier hamlet in March in support of leftist rebels battling rightist paramilitaries. Venezuela denies those reports.

Officials in both Venezuela and Colombia say the border between the two countries has been the scene of numerous skirmishes between various military and paramilitary groups.

In addition to border security, Presidents Chavez and Uribe were set to discuss bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

Reuters-Alertnet.org 23 Apr 2003 18:02:08 GMT By Magdalena Morales

PUERTO ORDAZ, Venezuela, April 23 (Reuters) - Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, ideological opposites and uneasy neighbors, met on Wednesday to try to settle a war of words over border security and salvage faltering trade ties.

The two presidents held a one-day summit in eastern Venezuela amid recriminations from both sides over violent incidents along their 1,400-mile (2,200-km) border involving Colombian guerrillas and paramilitaries.

But it was all smiles when the two -- ebullient former paratrooper Chavez and straight-laced lawyer Uribe -- began their talks in the industrial city of Puerto Ordaz.

Chavez told reporters "I love Colombia" and Uribe presented his Venezuelan host with a ceremonial Colombian poncho.

Uribe's government, the United States' closest ally in Latin America, has repeatedly accused left-winger Chavez, who is portrayed by his critics as an anti-U.S. maverick, of providing a haven for Colombian Marxist rebels.

Washington has made Colombia its third-largest recipient of foreign aid, after Israel and Egypt, to help battle drug-traffickers and rebels waging a four-decade war.

Uribe wants Venezuela to help crack down on the leftist guerrillas his government says shelter over the border.

Bogota has been investigating complaints by border residents that Venezuelan military aircraft bombed a Colombian frontier hamlet on March 21, killing and wounding several people. Local residents said the aircraft supported Colombian rebels who were fighting rightist paramilitary groups.

Denying the charges, Chavez's government has accused the Colombian army of collaborating with the paramilitaries on the rugged frontier, a patchwork of mountain, jungle and savanna, where killings and kidnappings plague local communities.

"We want the best relations with Colombia, but we can't allow anyone to lie about or insult Venezuela," Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said as the two presidents met in Puerto Ordaz.

Outlining the agenda for Wednesday's talks, Chavez said the meeting would focus as much on improving bilateral trade and economic cooperation as on the frontier, which has historically been a point of conflict between the two Andean neighbors.

"The greatest threat facing us is poverty," the Venezuelan leader said in Puerto Ordaz, adding that instead of squabbling over the border the two governments should concentrate on improving the living standards of their people.

The two leaders were expected to discuss proposed joint energy projects, such as one to provide Venezuelan electricity to Colombia and another for a pipeline that would carry Colombian gas to refineries and power stations in Venezuela.

<a href=news.bbc.co.uk<BBC News

All smiles at the summit but the two men have sharply contrasting politics

Colombia and Venezuela have agreed to increase security along their long and porous border to prevent frequent crossings by armed Colombian groups.

The agreement follows several weeks of growing tension as Colombia accused Venezuela of providing a haven for left-wing rebels.

Meeting in eastern Venezuelan, President Hugo Chavez and his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, agreed that the civil war in Colombia increasingly threatened the entire Andean region.

"Colombia has long suffered terrorism sponsored by drug-trafficking. It has become a threat to all of our neighbours," Mr Uribe said, after their summit in the town of Puerto Ordaz.

Everything would be done to prevent guerrillas and paramilitaries from penetrating the 2,200 kilometres (1,500 mile) border, he said.

"Call them archangels or terrorists. The important thing is to capture them," he said, a reference to Mr Chavez's refusal to call the left-wing rebels terrorists.

President Chavez said he and Mr Uribe had decided to deal with the sensitive border issue in private in the future and avoid what he called "microphone diplomacy".

Both men also played down tensions fuelled by reports that Venezuelan aircraft bombed right-wing paramilitaries inside Colombia in March.

Poncho gift

Mr Chavez has repeatedly denied providing a refuge for Colombian guerrillas, blaming such allegations on groups determined to undermine bilateral relations.

His opponents alleged everyone had passed through the Venezuelan capital, Mr Chavez said, "including Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. I'm not going to respond to that."

The two men also announced a series of co-operation projects, including a deal for Venezuelan importers to pay around $350 million owed to Colombian exporters.

Payment had been blocked by tight currency controls introduced by Venezuela to shore up its own currency - a move which hit bilateral trade hard.

Before the talks, Mr Uribe gave Mr Chavez a poncho, saying it was not something Manuel Marulanda, the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, would wear.

Mr Chavez insisted he took the remark as a "good joke".

Posted on Wed, Apr. 23, 2003 BY PHIL GUNSON Special to The Miami Herald

MACHIQUES, Venezuela -The blue-green mountains of the Perijá range that rise just a short distance west of this small Venezuelan town mark the official border with neighboring Colombia.

But if border residents, and the Colombian government itself, are to be believed, the border these days is little more than a line on a map, left increasingly unprotected by the Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chávez, whom they accuse of allowing Colombian leftist guerrillas to cross back and forth virtually at will.

Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel recently responded by accusing the government of President Alvaro Uribe of tolerating the actions of right-wing paramilitaries who, along certain stretches of border, he said, were the ``de facto state.''

Since Colombia virtually had abandoned the 1,367-mile common border, Rangel said, Venezuela could not be expected to step in to do the job.

The Colombians want to see the revival of coordination between the two countries' armed forces along the border.

Uribe and Chávez will be trying to take some of the heat out of these increasingly bitter exchanges when they meet today in the eastern Venezuelan city of Puerto Ordaz for their second summit since Uribe took office last August.

The summit's main focus, however, is on trade, and there is little expectation in Machiques, or in neighboring communities, that the meeting will achieve a real improvement in border security. The biggest concern is that the paramilitaries are crossing into Venezuela in pursuit of the guerrillas, potentially turning the border region into a war zone.

''The paramilitaries argue that there are guerrillas right here in Machiques,'' says Luis Martínez, vice president of the local cattle-ranchers' association.

Some ranchers say there have already been approaches by paramilitaries.

They are looking for support, even small arms, to drive out the guerrillas, who in this region belong mostly to the National Liberation Army, the smaller of Colombia's two main leftist rebel groups.

There is a general consensus that the paramilitary presence is recent, dating from around February this year. The ranchers say, however, that they have rejected such approaches, even though they fear the guerrillas.

In the past, guerrilla kidnappings and extortion were commonplace here, although both businesses have now allegedly been taken over by common criminals, who occasionally try to sell a kidnap victim to the guerrillas.

If guerrillas and paramilitaries start fighting inside Venezuela, ''there'll be a lot of collateral damage,'' says another ranchers' association director, Juan Romero. ``I'd be delighted to see an end to the guerrillas, but they should finish them off over there, not over here.''

Ranchers, church sources and leaders of the indigenous communities that inhabit the Perijá range all complain that the Venezuelan army and national guard no longer patrol the border.

In the past, the Venezuelan armed forces would mount antidrug operations in the Sierra de Perijá, to eradicate marijuana and opium poppy plantations, but these too have ceased, local residents say. The illegal crops are said to be controlled by the guerrillas.

Accusations of inactivity are hotly denied by the army, but the local army commander, Lt. Col. Gustavo Izquierdo, referred inquiries to divisional headquarters in Maracaibo.

'All I can say is that we're doing our job, and that my soldiers' blood boils when they're risking their necks and they have to listen to idiots making up this kind of story.''