MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia will appeal to UN and OAS following Chavez war threats

President Uribe is also concerned with dwindling trade to Venezuela

Colombia said on Sunday it will appeal to the United Nations Security Council and the Organization of American States after President Hugo Chavez from neighbouring Venezuela ordered his army to prepare for war in order to assure peace.

For months Chavez has said that a military cooperation pact signed last month between Bogotá and Washington could set the stage for a US invasion of Venezuela from Colombian territory.

The US and Colombia dismiss any such plans saying cooperation is aimed strictly at fighting drug traffickers and armed insurgents within Colombia. Under the pact US forces will be deployed in seven Colombian bases from the three services.

During a Sunday television address, Chavez ordered his military to prepare for war as the best way to preserve peace in the region. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe immediately replied with a statement rejecting Chavez's remarks.

“Considering the threats of war enunciated by the government of Venezuela, the government of Colombia proposes going to the Organization of American States and the Security Council of the United Nations” according to the official statement.

Colombia also called for “frank dialogue” with Venezuela over their long-simmering diplomatic spat which is centred mostly in Chavez sympathies with the FARC guerrilla group fighting to bring down the Colombian government.

However with US financial and military logistics support the Colombian army has recovered most of the territory under guerrilla influence (at its peak 20%, mostly jungle areas) and has the insurgents on the run. Colombia alleges many of them take refuge or have havens mostly in Venezuela but also in Ecuador.

Chavez has refused to call the FARC guerrillas terrorists as accepted by the US and the European Union, and rather refers to them as fighters against the Colombian oligarchy and its allies the “US empire of evil”.

But commercially both neighbouring countries are highly dependent: after the US they are each other’s second biggest partner, with trade reaching over 7 billion USD in 2008.

Colombia recently asked the World Trade Organization to intercede after Chavez blocked the import of some Colombian goods in protest of the US military pact.

Colombia says the blocking of imports has exacerbated the country's recession and hurt an export sector already clobbered by low global demand brought by the world financial crisis.