Western Hemisphere
Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez on Tuesday warned his regional counterparts that the agreement under which the United States can use several military bases in Colombia is "a war plan against South America."

Chávez's statements came during the 38th presidential Summit of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), held in Montevideo.

Despite the fact that the "governments of Colombia and the United States have been trying to hide it," the project gives Washington "great capacity to come upon us at any time", thanks to "espionage, wiretapping, intelligence and monitoring," Chávez said, as reported by Efe.

Talking to his counterparts from Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; Uruguay, Tabaré Vázquez, and Argentina, Cristina Fernández, the Venezuelan leader said that from the Colombian military bases, the US airplanes "can fly to the Southern Cone without refueling."

"They could sabotage the communications of the Brazilian forces," Chávez warned Lula.

"We do not have any technology that can be 'vaccinated' against the Yankee technology," he added. Chávez stressed that Venezuela would continue reporting the risks of the military cooperation plan between Colombia and the United States.

Later, in a more conciliatory tone, Chávez said: "We are brethren countries; we want to take care of the union for which Mercosur is working so hard."