New tensions between Colombia and Venezuela
On July 15, Colombia’s Defense Ministry abruptly held a press conference to denounce that high-ranking leaders of the FARC guerrilla group are present in neighboring Venezuela. This announcement, coming just over three weeks before the end of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe’s term in office, immediately reversed what had been a slow warming of relations between both countries’ governments.
Colombian President-elect Juan Manuel Santos had invited Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to attend his inauguration, and Chávez had authorized a meeting between Venezuela’s foreign minister and Santos’ minister-designate. Neither Chávez’s attendance nor the ministerial meeting are now likely.
Yesterday (July 22), Colombia took its case to the OAS, showing satellite photos and videos indicating a presence of FARC and ELN camps within Venezuelan territory. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez responded by giving Colombian diplomats 72 hours to leave Venezuela.
If we have to go to war with Colombia, we’d do it in tears, but we’d do it. I hold responsible President Uribe, who is sick with hatred, because he is headed to the dustbin of history, he’s going directly there, as a token of Yankee imperialism. He ended up isolated in this continent, he didn’t defeat the guerrillas or narcotrafficking, and Venezuela is a victim of all that. I hold him responsible for any aggression against Venezuela.
Added Venezuela’s defense minister, Gen. Carlos Mata Figueroa:
We hold responsible the Colombian oligarchy and its current government … if these brother nations should stain their history with blood.
Tensions between the two countries are dangerously high, though they may subside once Uribe leaves office on August 7, say analysts like Colombian newspaper columnist Laura Gil.
This is above all a breaking of relations with Álvaro Uribe. The political relationship between the two countries is now very deteriorated. The problem for Colombia may come if Chávez concludes that what Uribe did was agreed upon with Santos.
Added former OAS Ambassador Álvaro Tirado Mejía:
Santos will find himself, next August 7, in a situation that paradoxically will be very difficult, but he will also find the way clear to say ‘let’s start over.’
Regarding Santos, Chávez was more conciliatory:
Let’s hope Santos inundates himself with Latin American spirit and understands that governments of the right and left can live together here. We’re obligated to do that.
For his part, the Colombian President-Elect refused to comment.
I think the best contribution we can make is to say nothing. President Uribe is the President of the Republic until August 7. Thank you very much.
Vice-President-Elect Angelino Garzón also took a softer tone, saying that the next government will seek
all diplomatic mechanisms to improve and strengthen relations with all countries in the region, including Venezuela. In the end, the message that we have to give, as governments and as peoples, is the message of unity, of friendship, of cooperation and of peace.
In its lead editorial today El Tiempo, Colombia’s most-circulated daily, warned of the risk of armed confrontation.
All along this lively border, good relations are not an alternative but an obligation. If it is otherwise, those who would pay the consequences are the hundreds of thousands of people who live on both sides of the dividing line. This is without even mentioning the risks of an armed confrontation, since under the current circumstances, a simple spark could ignite a conflagration. This, then, is the occasion to ask the Colombian armed forces to exercise maximum prudence and to avoid falling into traps and provocations.
The U.S. government, through State Department spokesman Philip Crowley, has correctly called on both sides to work together to reduce tensions.
It would be good for the region if those tensions were eased, and it’s a matter of dialogue between Colombia, Venezuela, arrive at a common understanding of how to work cooperatively on the challenges that we face, among them, security challenges. But we certainly support greater interaction, cooperation, dialogue between Colombia and Venezuela to reduce those tensions and increase mutual cooperation.
In a written communication to Agénce France Presse, however, the State Department also called on Venezuela to respond to Colombia’s allegations of FARC presence.
Colombia’s allegations need to be taken very seriously. Venezuela has an obligation to Colombia and to the international community to fully investigate this information and move to prevent the use of its sovereign territory by terrorist groups.
OAS Secretary-General José Miguel Insulza called for the two countries to renew dialogue on their own.
We succeeded in overcoming serious crises some years ago. I hope they can make it now as well, but the steps should be taken by Venezuela and Colombia, and I expect they can come to terms over the next months.
But Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, had very strong criticisms for the Secretary-General who, he said, ignored Ecuador’s calls to delay yesterday’s OAS discussion, which ended with a heated exchange that increased tensions.
I insisted, in the letter sent by the government of Ecuador to OAS Secretary General, I told him that the issue should not be discussed in such a precipitous manner, but let’s change precipitous for irresponsible. This is the result of not paying attention to what is going on in the region. Unfortunately who was called to avoid the severing of diplomatic relations and who was also warned about what could happen was not up to his duty. And that gentleman is OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza.
In the latest development, the secretary-general of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner, announced that he will meet separately with presidents Uribe and Chávez on August 4 and 5.
The Washington Office on Latin America has posted a statement about the crisis.
While the U.S. has long been a close ally of the Colombian government, we believe that it is most in the interest of the United States - indeed, of all parties involved - to reduce tensions and resolve this crisis through even-handed diplomacy and communication. Our policy over the next several weeks must place the greatest priority on a peaceful resolution of this crisis, and must take great care not to fan the flames.