MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela drops out from Andean security meeting

Venezuela in the middle of a serious diplomatic rift with Mexico decided at last minute to skip a regional security conference in Ecuador involving top military officers from the Andean Community as well as the United States and Brazil.

Admiral Manuel Zapater from Ecuador's armed forces joint command confirmed Venezuela will not be present, "unfortunately, they called off at last minute. We don't know the reasons".

The two days high level military meeting will address "cooperation mechanisms" and "confidence-building in the Andean region". United States is represented by the head of the US military Southern Command General Bantz Craddock.

The event takes place a few hours after Venezuela and Mexico decided to freeze diplomatic relations calling home their ambassadors following irritating remarks by President Hugo Chavez to his Mexican counterpart Vicente Fox.

Mr. Chavez considers the Free Trade Area of the Americas, FTAA, an "imperialist intent" by the US to dominate the region but Mr. Fox and 28 other Latinamerican countries are strong advocates of the initiative. Furthermore Venezuela's Andean Community partners are currently involved in free trade talks with Washington.

Venezuelan Trade Minister Gustavo Marquez said in Caracas that the free-trade pact Washington is currently negotiating with Peru, Colombia and Ecuador has left Caracas "on the edge of a rift" with three of its four partners in the Andean Community.

Chavez argued that Venezuela - now holding the group's rotating chair- "has nothing to gain" from its participation in the Andean Community, which also includes Bolivia.

The bilateral and sub-regional pacts United States has been laboriously knitting are effectively replacing Washington's sponsored FTAA, which Mr. Chavez opposes point blank as disastrous for Latin America.

Chavez had called Fox "the puppy dog" of the United States for championing the FTAA. Mexico demanded an apology, which Venezuela refused to comply with.