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.
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.
WAIT BEFORE YOU GO...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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Colombia has a new president, Juan Manuel Santos, who was sworn in on Saturday and will immediately face a fractured diplomatic state -- Venezuela and Ecuador have severed ties with the country -- along with continuing drug violence and a long-festering rebel insurgency.
It's an exciting day in Colombia as citizens head to the polls to vote for a new president. The two front-runners are former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos and former Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus of the Green Party.
Tensions are running high, and relations running low, between Colombia and Venezuela. The latter's president, Hugo Chavez, told his generals to prepare for war, while the Colombian government announced a new base on the countries' border and activated six air battalions.
Despite profound ideological differences and a long history of fighting between the groups, the two largest Colombian guerrilla armies, the ELN and the FARC, have forged a pact to fight the country's security forces.
A new book casts an illuminating spotlight on Colombia’s guerrilla war, fueled by cocaine profits and U.S. military aid.
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