MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela & Colombia suspends bilateral relations

President Hugo Chavez on Friday demanded that Colombia apologize for violating Venezuela's sovereignty and announced that until Bogota makes amends all agreements and bilateral affairs will be frozen.

"I have ordered all agreements and business with Colombia paralyzed. The oil pipeline is halted. And I'm forced to stick to this decision until Venezuela's violated sovereignty has been restored," Chavez said before the National Assembly. "With much regret, I have recalled the Venezuelan ambassador in Bogota (Carlos Santiago) and he will not return as long as the Colombian government does not apologize and rectify what it's done," he added.

Chavez said that Bogota violated Venezuela's sovereignty with the Dec. 13 kidnapping in Caracas of Rodrigo Granda, the unofficial foreign minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, that nation's largest Marxist rebel group. Colombia maintains that Granda was arrested in the Colombian city of Cucuta and has admitted that it paid a reward for information that led to his apprehension.

"Nothing and nobody will move me from this position because I represent the dignity of the Venezuelan people," added Chavez, who on Friday delivered before Congress his state of the nation address in the presence of the foreign diplomats accredited in Caracas.

The oil pipeline - the halting of whose activities Chavez announced - connects northeastern Colombia with northwestern Venezuela across the southern portion of the La Guajira peninsula.

"There is no justification for what happened. President Alvaro Uribe, in the name of the affection that we have, in the name of our children and our peoples, I extend my hand to you. I don't believe that you could have known of this operation which flagrantly violated the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people. Therefore, I invite your government to correct (the matter) publicly," Chavez said. "What happened must be rectified. It is the mark of wise men to correct themselves. (Colombia) has committed a serious mistake and must correct it instead of looking for slick arguments that put its government in a worse position," the Venezuelan leader said.

Chavez insisted that "it is unjustifiable that high officials in Colombia have been subordinated to (lower) officials and (that they) bought off Venezuelan soldiers." He announced that he had brought the matter up with the presidents of other Latin American countries so that it could be examined and to avoid the imposition of "the law of the jungle" in the region.

Chavez said that governments must respect international law and he rhetorically asked how they might react in Bogota if he decided to "organize a commando group and offer rewards to bring in Pedro Carmona or other Venezuelan former coup participants who are in Colombia." Carmona proclaimed himself Venezuela's president during the failed April 2002 coup that deposed Chavez from power for 27 hours. During the time he was de facto president, Carmona abolished the country's democratic institutions.

Regarding the Venezuelan military men who kidnapped Granda, Chavez said that "they betrayed the homeland and will be punished with the full weight of the law." "They will be subjected to justice and we will be implacable with this small group of Venezuelans who don't deserve to wear the uniform of the armed forces," he asserted.

Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel on Thursday said that Colombia had "bribed" local military officers to kidnap Granda while he was attending a leftist conference in Caracas, and he also insinuated that Colombian Defense Minister Jorge Uribe was duplicitous with him during a visit last month.

Colombia acknowledged Wednesday that the "snatch" of Granda was effected by bounty hunters, insisting that Colombian officers only took custody of the rebel on the Colombian side of the border.

"There was a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty. The (Colombian) defense minister admitted responsibility for the bribery and participation in the abduction. That revives the law of the jungle in the Andean realm. 'Plan Colombia' is being expanded to the entire Andean region," Rangel told reporters.

Plan Colombia is Bogota's U.S.-backed initiative to combat drug trafficking and leftist rebels.

Rangel said Thursday that five Venezuelan soldiers and three police had been arrested so far in the case, including an army lieutenant colonel.

He said Colombia should have acted within international law by requesting Granda's extradition instead of choosing "the path of crime." The vice president noted that this incident was not the first time Colombia had resorted to extralegal "shortcuts," citing the case of Colombian rebel Jose Maria Ballestas, rescued by police in March 2001 from abductors who were trying to smuggle him out of Venezuela and back to his homeland for trial. Caracas honored a subsequent request from Bogota to extradite Ballestas.

The kidnapping cast doubt on Defense Minister Uribe's explanation for December's discovery of three Colombian police on Venezuelan territory, the vice president said. At the time, Caracas moved quickly to repatriate the cops - who had been detained - as a gesture of goodwill.

Uribe - who is no relation to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe - said Wednesday that his nation has an official program that pays rewards for "narcoterrorists" and Granda's arrest took place in that context.

The Venezuelan security force members who effected the capture reportedly were paid $1.5 million.

Venezuelan legislator Luis Tascon said the operation was coordinated by a Colombian colonel who traveled to Venezuela prior to Granda's capture.

Conservatives in both Venezuela and Colombia say Chavez is sympathetic to Marxist rebels who have been waging a 40-year-old civil war in Colombia.