Venezuela Moves Troops To Colombia Border

Diplomats Try To Head Off Conflict; Bush Accuses Chavez Of "Provocative Maneuvers"

(AP)  Venezuela has nearly completed its deployment of thousands of troops to states along the border with Colombia, a top general said Wednesday.

"Between 85 and 90 percent of the troops are situated," Gen. Jesus Gonzalez Gonzalez told reporters at a news conference, saying soldiers were largely sent to the border states of Zulia, Tachira and Apure.

He said the movement of troops began Sunday, immediately after President Hugo Chavez ordered 10 battalions to the border in response to a Colombian military strike that killed two dozen leftist rebels on Ecuadorean soil.

Those battalions sent to the border region included approximately 9,000 men, retired Gen. Alberto Muller Rojas, a former top aide to Chavez, told The Associated Press.

Chavez also dispatched tanks and ordered an air force deployment, but the military has been tightlipped about specifics of troop movements along the border, which runs through high mountains and thick jungle.

Venezuela moved troops toward Colombia and forced cargo trucks to back up at border crossings on Tuesday as tensions increased in a war of nerves over Colombia's cross-border strike on a leftist guerrilla base in Ecuador.

Ecuador also reinforced its border with more troops and sought international condemnation of the attack, which killed 23 guerrillas including a rebel leader who had been key to hostage talks with Venezuela, France and other European countries.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa met Wednesday with Brazil's president in an attempt to rally support for his denunciation of a Colombian raid on guerrillas hiding in his country.

He offered no proof, but told reporters in Brazil's capital he agreed with speculation that Colombian authorities killed top FARC leader Raul Reyes "to prevent a deal for the liberation of the hostages from going forward."

Reyes was a key figure in a deal being negotiated by Ecuador to help release 12 hostages, Correa said after arriving in Brazil from Peru.

Colombia has accused Ecuador of deepening ties with the guerrillas, alleging that a laptop seized at the bombed rebel camp documented high-level meetings between Ecuador's government and rebel leaders. Ecuador has denied the charge.

"If this act goes unpunished, the region will be in danger, because the next victim could be Peru, it could be Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, any one of our countries," Correa told reporters in Peru's capital, Lima.

After meeting with Silva, Correa heads to Venezuela and will then make stops in Panama, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

President George W. Bush accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of making "provocative maneuvers" and said the U.S. stands with Colombia, its right-leaning ally in a region now dominated by leftists.

Other leaders tried to dampen the war talk while saying Colombia was clearly wrong to send troops across its borders, and called for an investigation by the Organization of American States, which scheduled an emergency meeting in Washington to try to calm one of the region's worst political showdowns in years.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said the International Criminal Court should try Chavez for "genocide" for allegedly financing the rebels, citing a reference to a $300 million Venezuelan payment to the rebels they said was found in documents in laptops recovered by Colombian commandos at the bombing scene.

But Uribe said he would not allow his nation to be drawn into open war.

"Colombia has never been a country to go to war with its neighbors," Uribe said. "We are not mobilizing troops, nor advancing toward war."

In Washington, a Colombian official apologized to Ecuador for the incursion but Ecuador responded that the apology was not enough.

Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvador told an OAS sesssion that Colombia must condemn the incursion, appoint a commission to investigate it and call an urgent meeting of the region's foreign ministers to be held "at the latest March 11."

Colombia's ambassador to the OAS, Camilo Ospina, acknowledged that his nation's helicopters entered Ecuador in search of the rebel camp and said the government has issued repeated public apologies to Ecuador's government for the raid "and will do so again today."

Venezuela was sending about 9,000 soldiers - 10 battalions - to the border region as "a preventive measure," retired Gen. Alberto Muller Rojas, a former top Chavez aide, told The Associated Press. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said he was sending 3,200 more troops to its border.

Agriculture Minister Elias Jaua said Tuesday that Venezuela was closing the border to imports and exports, and would look to other countries for necessary imports. "Lamentably, we cannot depend for anything at all on a country that's in a war posture against its neighboring countries," Jaua said.

Some 300 vehicles, including trucks carrying food, shoes, ceramics and other products, were stuck waiting for permission to enter Venezuela, said Leonardo Mendez, a spokesman for a Colombian cargo transport association.

Fuel distribution was sharply reduced in the Venezuelan border state of Tachira, where the situation "worsened a lot" Tuesday at border crossings, agreed Isidoro Teres, who runs a Venezuelan business chamber the border town of Urena.

Venezuela and Colombia share annual border trade worth $5 billion, most of it Colombian exports sorely needed by Venezuelans already suffering milk and meat shortages.

In Ecuador, where trade with Colombia adds up to $1.8 billion annually, commerce and migration continued freely on Tuesday, according to Carlos Lopez, Ecuador's undersecretary of immigration.

Chavez warned Uribe that any strike on Venezuelan soil could provoke war. But his forces would be outnumbered: Venezuela and Ecuador have about 172,000 active military troops between them. Colombia's U.S.-equipped, trained and advised military has more than 250,000.

Despite the withering rhetoric of Uribe, Chavez and Correa - who called Uribe a "bold-faced liar" on Tuesday, the biggest losers from the killing of rebel spokesman Raul Reyes appeared to be hostages that might have been swapped for jailed guerrillas.

[amazedd]

Let''s dance
Put on your red shoes and dance the blues
Let''s dance
To the song they''re playin'' on the radio

[leftyintexas]

war finding its way inside our borders would make it easy to deal with liberal traitors...HANGING TIME..

Posted by libsrweak at 12:23 AM : Mar 05, 2008

Blow hards like you certainly aren''t man enough to try it. Ha! Ha! Ha! Only 321 days left! Enjoy!

[leftyintexas]

President George W. Bush accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of making "provocative maneuvers"

An excellent example of the POT calling the kettle black. Two twins separated at birth.

[drputt45]

Hugo ''Fidel'' Chavez has Napoleon syndrome. Little man, big mouth. He has too much money to control and his people have none. He should spend the money in his own country (and so should we).

[barbarossa_t]

God save us from you people!
They should take away your vote until you are educated to at least the standard of a normal 7 year old.
Cretins...

[squidly8]

mh4cbs1, you are joking right about the democracy in Venezuela right? Even Jimmy Carter has issues with their electoral process.

http://www.cartercenter.org/countries/venezuela.html

[jackie0428]

The US needs to quietly tell Colombia: "Ignore Venezuela and these deployments. Ignore it and go about business as usual. And, if Chavez is stupid enough to attack you or invade Colombia, rest assured the US Air Force will help you bomb holy he*ll out Chavez''s ground forces." Look, Chavez is simply trying to goad Colombia into confronting and engaging them. Chavez wants a conflict to distract his people away from the fact that his country is failing, his government is a farce, and the future is bleak. Chavez knows that the fastest way to become more powerful is to have an external threat to be in a war with. Chavez is pure scum.

[telecom_1]

Chavez is the Devil!!!

[pensacola88]

$300 million is nothing to sneeze at! Chavez has to answer to his people why he diverts revenues from his lucerative oil exports for a terrorist cause.

[quetzal0666]

Bush cant afford onother War.
Even if he comes to the Defence of his shoeShine boy, Alvaro Uribe ......

[itstrouble]

Chavez is a US copycat, for the last 90 years the US express wanted nothing more than peace. Until Chavez rise no other Venezuelan President even brought to issue the idea of peace. Chavez has expressed a deep desire for peace and doing so has equip the country with a multi-billion dollar arms arsenal. Chavez so intent on peace, surely a war will breakout soon just a US copy.

[watcher269-2009]

Voters in two Vermont towns on Tuesday approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President *** Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution," local media reported.

---

It''''s time to NUKE Vermont! Heeheehee

[watcher269-2009]

Time to Send troops to Columbia - we have enough money to fight 3 wars - then just think! We can invade Venezuela for their OIL!!!

Yes - that''s what we should have done in the first place - darnit - if only one of those terrorists on 9-11 was Venezuelan, we could have invaded them.

Invade, InVaDe, INVADE!

[libsrweak]

ITS TIME TO START WORLD WAR III..time to rid the world of the weak, the stupid and the liberals

war finding its way inside our borders would make it easy to deal with liberal traitors...HANGING TIME..

[libsrweak]

Posted by mh4cbs1 at 11:50 PM : Mar 04, 2008
+ report abuse
*********************

but yet you still prefer to live with bush than with chavez WHY IS THAT????????

[mh4cbs1]

What a joke! Our war criminal President who deliberately LIED us into a friggin INVASION of a foreign nation actually accuses Chavez of "provacative maneuvers"?? War criminal Bush belongs IN JAIL for his war crimes.

"President George W. Bush accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of making "provocative maneuvers" and said the U.S. stands with Colombia, its right-leaning ally in a region now dominated by leftists.

[mh4cbs1]

wesleyji:

You sound a little frustrated. Its no wonder - the days of US assassinations, bloody coups, support of brutal dictators, and theft of natural resources in the South American nations are finally coming to an end!

You are probably frustrated that Chavez is so popular, and democracy is so strong in Venezuela. After all Chavez was elected in a landslide, while fascist baby bush had to steal his wins and has a popularity of about 19%, after having run our nation into the ground and shredding our constitution.

Eventually the Columbian people will throw off the shackles of the American empire and the super wealthy ruling class that exploits them.

Yes, it must be a sad day for you fascist right wing slimebags. After the Bush/Cheney fiasco, where they LIED us into needless war costing hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives, Americans are ready to end the NeoCon Nightmare and the sick and disgusting American empire as well!

[beehive21-2009]

War,huh,the third worlders going to get it on ,we cannot wait ,show us your stuff ?

[jlwesley]

Typical left wing and liberal ***, it is ok for Ecuador and Venezuela to support and protect the rebels, it is ok for the rebels to strike across the boder then jump back, but it is not ok for Columbia to strike back in retaliation and to protect itself.

Time to tell Chaves and his cronies including Castro to shove off, the follow up with whatever it takes to get rid of them, up to and including assassination.