President Hugo Chávez Wednesday downplayed an announcement on a verbal protest the Colombian Government is about to make before Caracas rejecting the Venezuelan ruler's petition that the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) are removed from the list of terrorist groups.

"I want to insist on this, we want peace, (but) the American empire is opposed to peace in Colombia and puts pressure on the Colombian Government for it to oppose peace," Chávez said.

"The government that Colombia has today doesn't want peace," Chavez said on Wednesday during a visit to Managua, Nicaragua. "I'm convinced that this conflict doesn't have a military solution. We have to look for a political solution.''