Venezuela Troops Head To Columbian Border
March 4, 2008
VENEZUELA - Venezuela has sent hundreds of it’s troops to its border with Columbia as tensions over Columbia’s cross-border strike on a rebel base in Ecuador heighten. During this strike, Raul Reyes, a top commander of Columbian FARC rebels was targeted.
Unfortunately the raid on the rebel camp had it’s greatest impact on the hostages, many of whom were killed during the raid. Those hostages included three U.S. military contractors, former Columbian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, and a dual French national.
Chavez condemned the killing and ordered 9,000 of it’s 100,000 soldiers to the Venezuela border that it shares with Columbia. Chavez warned Columbian President Alvara Uribe that any strike on Venezuelan soil could provoke a South American war.
Uribe countered that he provided Chavez with the precise information on the location of rebel camps in Venezuela. These are especially of interest to Uribe as one is where Ivan Marquez, another top leader of the FARC, is residing. Uribe, while intending to ask the International Criminal Court to try Chavez for “genocide” for financing of FARC per information found upon a laptop said to belong to Reyes, assures that Columbia is taking no actions to go to war with Chavez.
The tensions are so heightened with the deployment of 10 battalions to the border that an emergency meeting was called in Washington by the Organization of American States. Their hope is to calm what could be one of the region’s worst political showdowns in years.
It is equally important to Americans as the United States continues to back Columbia against Venezuela and his allies. These same allies include Russia and the Middle East. President Bush has announced the United States support of Columbia. It is unknown if the United States was involved in executing the raid that killed Reyes.
