South Americans try to end Venezuela-Colombia rift
Published: Jul 29, 2010 23:09 Updated: Jul 29, 2010 23:09
QUITO: South American foreign ministers were meeting in Ecuador on Thursday to discuss broken ties between Venezuela and Colombia, with sparks likely over the two Andean nations' clashing plans to fix a crisis over leftist rebels.
The gathering of the 12-member Union of South American Nations is the first encounter between the two governments since Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez severed relations last week over Bogota's charges his country harbors Colombian guerrillas in comfortable camps.
Chavez has warned that close US ally Colombia was planning a military attack, and threatened to stop the OPEC nation's oil supplies to the United States if that happened.
With Venezuela calling for peace talks to end decades of civil war in Colombia and Bogota saying its neighbor should instead help it fight the Marxist rebels, a solution to the crisis was unlikely on Thursday.
"I really don't have high expectations," Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said before heading to Quito.
It leaves a headache for incoming Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who takes over from Alvaro Uribe on Aug. 7 and has vowed to improve relations and revive billions of dollars in lost trade.
The rift marks a new low in already frayed relations between two of Latin America's most militarized and ideologically opposed nations. Chavez has seized on the alleged threat of an attack from Colombia to mobilize supporters ahead of Sept. 26 legislative elections in which his socialist party could lose seats as the economy struggles with recession.
Analysts say an armed conflict is unlikely and markets have shrugged off the latest row, with the Colombian peso performing strongly and Venezuela's benchmark Global 2027 bonds stronger in the last week.
The meeting could indicate how much support Colombia will have for pressuring Chavez to act on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, rebels it says launch raids from Venezuela.
Most governments in South America are left-leaning but not as radical as Chavez. Regional heavyweight Brazil has offered to mediate in the feud and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will visit Venezuela next week before Santos' inauguration.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro was due in Quito after a seven-nation tour to drum up support for a "peace plan" that seeks to end Colombia's decades-long war with the rebels, who are funded by the cocaine trade.
Colombia rejects that idea as an intrusion, and instead wants Chavez's government to cooperate in destroying what it calls rebels' "summer camps."
"Colombia will insist that a concrete and efficient mechanism is needed to stop the FARC and the ELN being in Venezuela," said Bermudez.
The National Liberation Army, or ELN, is a smaller Colombian rebel force that Bogota says also operates across the border.
Colombia last week presented satellite images, photos, maps and coordinates it said proved that some top rebel commanders were in a remote mountain range across the border.
Chavez, an outspoken US critic and standard-bearer of socialism in Latin America, called the presentation a hoax and says his government will not cede any territory to rebels or right-wing paramilitaries from Colombia.
In 2008 Colombia bombed a FARC camp in Ecuador, killing top commander Raul Reyes. Relations in the Andean region have been tense ever since. Last year Chavez froze trade with Colombia after Uribe signed a deal allowing US troops access to seven military bases. Bilateral commerce is expected to drop as low as $1 billion in 2010, from nearly $7 billion in 2008.