Chavez Threatens War Against Colombia

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ratcheted up the tension between his country and neighboring Colombia by moving tanks and thousands of troops to the border between the two nations Sunday. Chavez’s actions were prompted by Colombia’s killing of a key Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) leader and 16 other FARC members in Ecuador the previous day. Chavez has friendly relations with FARC.

AP via Breitbart.com:

Chavez said he had just spoken to Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and that Ecuador was also sending troops to its border with Colombia. Chavez said his Ecuadorean ally told him that Uribe had lied and that the rebels were killed while asleep “in their pajamas.”

“This is something very serious. This could be the start of a war in South America,” Chavez said. He warned Colombian President Alvaro Uribe: “If it occurs to you to do this in Venezuela, President Uribe, I’ll send some Sukhois”—Russian warplanes recently bought by Venezuela.

He called Uribe “a criminal” accusing him of being a “lapdog” of Washington saying “Dracula’s fangs (are) are covered in blood.”

The slaying of Reyes and 16 other guerrillas, Chavez said, “wasn’t any combat. It was a cowardly murder, all of it coldly calculated.”

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AP photo / Reinaldo D' Santiago

Venezuelan troops guard a military helicopter Monday about 50 miles from the Colombian border.