EL UNIVERSAL

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez ordered sending tanks and 10 battalions to the border with Colombia and closing the Venezuelan Embassy to Bogota, following a military operation by Colombia last Saturday in Ecuador where the second man of the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces Raúl Reyes was killed.
 
Chávez claimed that after the incident he talked several times to his Ecuadorian counterpart Rafael Correa, adding that Venezuela is backing up any move Correa may make following the incursion, Reuters reported.

"Mr. Minister of Defense (General Gustavo Rangel Briceño), send 10 battalions to the border with Colombia, immediately, tank battalions. I want the military aviation to deploy," Chávez instructed during his weekly radio and television show on Sunday.

"I am declaring Venezuela in alert, and we are going to support Ecuador under any circumstance," he stressed.

Further, Chávez instructed Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro to withdraw "all of the staff from the Embassy to Bogota."

According to Chávez, Correa was "outraged" for the results of their preliminary investigations into the incident in Putumayo. Chávez added that Quito found that the attack against the FARC camp was launched from Ecuadorian territory, which implies "an invasion."

The Colombian government, which Chávez branded as "terrorist," claimed it did not violate Ecuador's sovereignty and underscored that it was self-defense.

Caracas and Bogota share strong trade relations, but they are facing serious diplomatic tensions ever since President Álvaro Uribe terminated Chávez's mediation to seek an agreement to swap 45 hostages for some 500 FARC troops in jail.

Winds of war
For Chávez, the Colombian move could be "the beginning of a war" in the hemisphere. Chávez harshly criticized Uribe, accusing the Colombian ruler of acting by the orders of the United States, Chávez's ideological enemy.

Uribe "is a criminal. He is a liar, a mafia boss, a paramilitary; he conducts a narco-governement and conducts a government that is a lackey of the US administration. Furthermore, he is a subordinate (of US President George W. Bush)," Chávez claimed.

The Venezuelan ruler deemed it necessary to set Colombia free from the US imperialism, but he would not elaborate.

Attacking Israel
The head of the Venezuelan State insisted that Colombia, allegedly following instructions from Washington, has plans to become "the Israel of Latin America." However, Chávez warned Colombia that the governments seeking the union in the region would not allow that.

Late Saturday, during a cabinet minister, Chávez referred to the circumstances surrounding the death of Reyes, and wondered whether Colombia would "become the Israel in Latin America."

"I am calling upon Venezuela to be on alert regarding this issue, considering the danger involved in the possibility that Colombia is ruled by this mafia that does anything the empire dictates and that hides behind a purported right to self-defense and that believes it is entitled to bomb neighbor territories, just like Israel does," Chávez stated.

Washington has provided economic and military support to Uribe's government through Plan Colombia, intended to fight drug traffic.

However, Chávez toned down his words by saying, "We do not want war." He added he would not attend the Summit of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) to be held late March in Colombia.

Words for a dead rebel
Chávez hailed Reyes, who visited Caracas over the last few months amidst the talks for a humanitarian swap of hostages for guerrilla troops.

"We would like to pay homage to a good revolutionary man, Raúl Reyes," Chávez said, and observed a minute's silence for the guerrilla leader.

Luis Edgar Devia, Reyes' real name, was deemed the second man in the FARC. He died last Saturday together with other 16 rebels in Ecuadorian territory during a bomb attack launched by the Colombian Military Forces in the jungle in the Colombia-Ecuador border.

Translated by Maryflor Suárez R.
msuarez@eluniversal.com