MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Group of Rio members to help Colombia/Venezuela diffuse tensions

Chavez and Uribe shouting match at “unity” summit

Latin American leaders will work to diffuse tensions between Colombia and Venezuela after presidents Alvaro Uribe and Hugo Chavez, got into a shouting match and exchange of insults at the Rio Group summit in Mexico.

Apparently Chavez told Uribe to “go to hell” during a closed-door lunch Monday evening after the Colombian leader called him “a coward” and told him to “be a man” at the unity summit of Latin American and Caribbean countries in Cancun.

Chavez said Tuesday that he regrets the “painful” argument.

Mexico President Felipe Calderon announced at the summit that a commission headed by Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez will work to facilitate better ties between the neighboring Andean nations.

“Latin American and Caribbean countries need a mechanism to solve differences,” Calderon told reporters. The group will include representatives from Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

Chavez accused Uribe of planning to assassinate him (having allegedly sent 300 para-militaries into Venezuela) after Uribe said Venezuela imposed a trade embargo on Colombia last year, of the kind the US has imposed on Cuba for decades.

Chavez said in July he would end imports from Colombia as Uribe moved forward with an accord giving the US greater access to military bases to help fight drug trafficking and Marxist guerrillas. Chavez said the agreement sets the stage for the US to invade Venezuela.

Colombian exports to Venezuela, traditionally its second- biggest trading partner, dropped 34% last year, according to Colombia’s statistics agency.

“The countries agreed to talk about their differences through fruitful dialogue, and they committed to building the conditions that make this possible with the support of a group of countries that are friends of Venezuela and Colombia,” Calderon said.

The two South American neighbors have agreed not to make any more “offensive” statements as they work to solve their disputes, reported Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez.

Members from both delegations confirmed the “full blown” incident which was stopped with the direct intervention of the host Mexico’s Calderón, and Cuba’s Raúl Castro at his first Rio Group summit.

The mutual accusations of “trade embargo” and “killing attempts” came to a critical point when Uribe demanded respect from Chavez for he would never be involved in any “killing plot”. At this point Chavez threatened to leave the luncheon and the summit and Uribe then challenged his peer: “be a man, because you like insulting at a distance, and when we are face to face you don’t want to talk”
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“Go to hell” was Chavez reaction. It was then that other leaders intervened recalling it was a “unity” summit.