MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia takes Chavez “war threats” to the UN Security Council

No water, no power but plenty of war fire works

Colombia has taken its case with threats of war from neighbouring Venezuela to the United Nations Security Council after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told his army to get ready to fight.

For months Chavez has said that a military pact signed in October between Bogotá and Washington could set the stage for a US invasion of Venezuela from Colombian territory with the purpose of taking over the country’s oil and ending the Bolivarian revolution.

However the US and Colombia have vehemently dismiss that idea, saying their cooperation, an extension of existing pacts, is aimed strictly at combating drug traffickers and armed insurgence within Colombia.

During a televised address on Sunday, Chavez ordered his military to prepare for war as the best way to preserve peace.

Colombia responded with a letter to the UN Security Council “about Venezuela's threats of using force against Colombia”, a Foreign Ministry statement said, asking that the letter be distributed to all members of the council.

The formal complaint could further anger Chavez, the fiery populist revolutionary who once called former US President George W. Bush “the devil” and “Mr. Danger”.

“We've handed over a letter explaining in detail concerns Colombia has about remarks by President Chavez and other sensitive matters,” Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said in Singapore at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Singapore.

“We have always said the door for dialogue is open ... we have still not had any contact,” he said.

Recriminations have increased recently, with Colombia accusing Chavez of not helping to combat drug-running rebels hiding out on Venezuela's side of the border and Chavez characterizing Colombia as an “oligarch stronghold” and lap-dog of the US “empire”.

“Prepare for war, train the people” Chavez told his military commanders during his regular Sunday TV program. “If you want peace you have to be ready for war”.

He has since softened his rhetoric, and on Wednesday said the media had manipulated his words.

“Venezuela's military is pacifist,” he said, adding that all nations use their armies to defend against invasion.

Venezuelan opposition claim Chavez is playing the “war card” to distract people from growing domestic problems such as extended water rationing and uncontrolled blackouts with little relief in the short term given the lack of maintenance and investments in public utilities.

However the rhetoric has hit hard bilateral trade, which amounted to 7 billion US dollars in 2008, and border areas where business prospers taking advantage of Venezuela’s rock bottom fuel prices and the abundance of food produce in Colombia and scarce just across the line.