MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez claims US and Colombia planning war provocation

Pte. Chavez and Pte. Uribe

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claimed that United States and Colombia were plotting an incident that would spark a war with Venezuela. The charges, supported by alleged troop movements in the border area caused fear among the civilian population of the neighboring countries.

"I alert the world of the following" said Chavez, speaking at the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) summit. "The United States empire is creating conditions to generate an armed conflict between Colombia and Venezuela. Colombia under the current administration has become a hostage of the empire". Chavez, who made a similar accusation on Friday, did not offer proof, but did point to January visits to Colombia by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff; and US 'drug czar' John Walters. "Colombia has already been taken over by the US empire". Chavez has many times said the United States is planning to kill him or topple his populist government. The Venezuelan leader also blasted Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, who on Friday said, without offering proof, that at least three leaders of the cocaine funded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas were living in Venezuela. Chavez also referred to an "adulterated video" in which the mayor of the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo is seen delivering weapons and supplies to another Colombian rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN). "In a gesture of madness of that rancid oligarchy" Chavez blasted, Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos Calderon "has said that, since that mayor is supporting the guerrillas, they are going to capture him and take him to Colombia. If that is so, for that, war then, and if that happens I tell the US, oil will shoot to 300 US dollars a barrel". Ties between Bogota and Caracas are at their lowest point in years, after President Uribe in November asked Chavez to stop his mediating role in the release of FARC hostages. But Chavez's belligerent talk has other reasons and purposes and is linked to a delicate political moment for the president, according to a former top Venezuelan official told Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper. "I plead with the Colombian people to ignore this, ignore all this verbiage and lack of respect," said Venezuelan general Raul Baduel, a former defense minister under Chavez. This week Venezuelan forces launched Operation Caribe 1, a week long conventional warfare exercise involving helicopters, light and heavy armor vehicles, 155 mm cannons and "abundant live munitions" according to Venezuela's official Bolivarian News Agency. "This is reaching an unmanageable point" said Colombian former Defence minister Rafael Pardo Rueda, "with such a long border (2.000 kilometers) any non intentional incident could escalate to a complicated pre-conflict scenario". The ALBA group --Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia-- at this gathering welcomed a new member, Dominica. They like-minded nations are, according to Chavez, determined to counter the "dictatorship of global capitalism." ALBA also launched a regional development bank with start-up capital of one billion dollars. "We are breaking a vehicle of capitalism," Chavez added. "This bank is a political instrument, for social and economic development; we'll just say it, there is no reason not to" added Chavez whose country's oil earnings fund most of the bank.