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Headline of the Week Weak
Filed under: Headline of the Week > Politik
"South America on brink of war"
Oh boy! CLICK HERE to read the alarming article accompanying this headline.
South America was on the brink of war yesterday as Venezuela and Ecuador amassed troops on the Colombian border in response to the killing of a Marxist rebel leader.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to join the rebels in a war to overthrow hard-line Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a key ally of the United States, deploying tanks, fighter jets and thousands of troops along the Colombian border.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa also ordered troops to the border, expelled Colombia's ambassador and recalled its ambassador to Bogota, but left its embassy open. Venezuela closed its embassy in Colombia and ordered all diplomats home.
A weekend battle sparked the mobilization, in which Colombian forces killed a top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in a camp in Ecuador.
"The obsessive conduct of those who prize the military option sharpens the armed conflict with grave possible consequences" read a statement from Venezuela's Foreign Ministry after the weekend killing of FARC's second in command, Raul Reyes.
On his weekly Sunday talk show "Hello President," Mr. Chavez accused Colombia of "invading" Ecuador, and compared the action to Israeli attacks against Palestinians.
"The Colombian government has become the Israel of Latin America," Mr. Chavez said. He called Colombia a "terrorist" state and its president, Mr. Uribe, a criminal; "Dracula's fangs are covered in blood."
Mr. Correa said Colombia deliberately carried out the strike beyond its borders. "There is no justification," he said last night, snubbing an earlier announcement from Colombia that it would apologize for the incursion.
Colombia's government said yesterday documents found in a jungle camp in Ecuador where Colombia troops killed Mr. Reyes showed ties between the FARC rebels and Mr. Correa, including contacts with his government about political proposals.
Police Cmdr. Gen. Oscar Naranjo said documents found in computers belonging to Mr. Reyes showed contacts between a top Correa government minister and the FARC commander to discuss political proposals and projects on the frontier.
"The questions raised by these documents need concrete answers," Gen. Naranjo said. "What is the state of relations between the Ecuadorean government and a terrorist group like the FARC."
Mr. Uribe has often accused the FARC of using Venezuelan and Ecuadorean territory as safe havens from military attacks.
Mr. Chavez has been trying to negotiate a prisoner exchange between the Colombian government and FARC, which holds hundreds of hostages including three American contractors and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.
He has brokered the recent release of seven hostages thus far, including four late last month.
During yesterday's television appearance, Mr. Chavez appeared to side with FARC's four decade effort to oust the government and establish a revolutionary state.
"Someday Colombia will be freed from the hand of the [U.S.] empire," Mr. Chavez said. "We have to liberate Colombia."
In another rhetorical flourish, he gave orders to Venezuela's military as millions watched on TV.
"Mr. Defense Minister, move 10 battalions to the border with Colombia for me, immediately — tank battalions, deploy the air force," Mr. Chavez said. "We don't want war, but we aren't going to permit the U.S. empire, which is the master … to come divide us."
Estimates of the number of troops in 10 Venezuelan battalions ranged from 3,000 to 6,000.
Yesterday's threat pushes already tense relations between the South American neighbors to their lowest point since Mr. Chavez took power in 1999, vowing to make Venezuela a revolutionary socialist state.
Speaking in Texas, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said officials were monitoring the situation.
"This is an odd reaction by Venezuela to Colombia's efforts against the FARC, a terrorist organization that continues to hold Colombians, Americans and others hostage," Mr. Johndroe said.
Colombia denied it violated Ecuador's sovereignty but acknowledged attacking the camp maintained on Ecuadorean soil by FARC.
"The terrorists, among them Raul Reyes, have had the custom of killing in Colombia and taking refuge in the territory of neighboring countries. Many times Colombia has suffered from this situation," Colombia's Foreign Ministry said.
In addition to Mr. Reyes, 16 Colombian rebels died in the attack.
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Suzanne Hall, in Bogota, would not comment on possible American involvement in the operation that led to Mr. Reyes' death.
"This is a government of Colombia operation," she said. "Talk to the government of Colombia for any operational details."
Mr. Correa said Colombia's military violated Ecuadorean airspace and entered to carry away Mr. Reyes' body.
Mr. Reyes, 59, whose real name is Luis Edgar Devia Silva, had been mentioned as a favorite to succeed aging leader Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda.
His death marks the biggest single victory since Mr. Uribe took office in 2002 with a vow to defeat the rebels. He has received billions of dollars in U.S. military aid.
Colombia has already carried out limited operations against FARC sanctuaries in Venezuela.
In 2004, an undercover team snatched the group's "chancellor," Rodrigo Granda, from Caracas. In another incident last year, two Colombian soldiers were killed while on an intelligence mission along the border of both countries.
While the Colombian army is numerically superior and is thought to be better trained than Venezuela's, Mr. Chavez's recent acquisition of 53 Russian combat helicopters and 24 Sukhoi SU 30 warplanes potentially gives him air superiority, military analysts say.
Re: Ojos Negros – you fucking idiot…thats how we pronounce it…its colombian slang….of course we know how to spell, but if we say it "hijo de puta" it wouldn't sound colombian…so shut up hijueputa
Re: Ecuadorian in America – Re: Ecuadorian in America – Why the fuck our you living in the U.S…..Get out of here and go back to Ecuador, don't critisize the country which has given you an education and a fucking computer to go on Perezhitlon.com, because if you are here is because equador wasn't good enough for you or your parents. So don't come and tell us how bad the U.S. is…Hipocrita
I watched Chavez on TV sayin all that like "the American empire blahblahblah… we dont want war but we wont refuse it blahblahblah" I was thinking geez why war hreeee??!
chavez sucks!! we don't want him here and is sad for us that we are ashamed of our president, he's lost all kinds of respect from his own country and the rest of the world, nobody takes him seriously anymore.. we want peace not war!!
Re: HA –
Wll its people like you who ignore important things going on in the world. Fucking ignorant.
Re: Ecuadorian in America –
FUCK YOU!!! FYI your beautiful county gives home to thousands of terrorist a year…
Colombia, supported by the USA, invaded and killed 10 people in Equador. Equador and Venezuela are doing what they think is the right thing for their countries.
You idiots and ignorants that are claiming that Obama will fix this are very ill-informed–as is all obama "the mesiah idiot" supporters. I'll have all of you know that IF he come into office (w/no foreign policy experience) he will not support Colombia or its narco-fight… They have said they will do everything in their power to cancel and lower all aid to Colombia…
wow, obviously you perez hilton fans are super informed about Chavez…right. Stick to the celebrity shit people, stay away from anything involving a real opinion, you might hurt yourselves.
TO ALL THOSE CHAVEZ'S LOVERS OUT THERE!!! Uribe just went publicly and said that he is going to sue chavez for genoside and war crimes againd the international penal court!!!! JAAAAA!!!! If he does this, is because he has enough information to do so… Raul Reyes' computers where filled with information relating him with chavez and stating that he has given millions of dollars to the Farc fuckers!!! And they also found that they have't released Ingrid because she is the most important asset for negotiations!!! so CHAVEZ IS A GENOCIDE AND COMMITS WAR CRIMES!!!!!!
Re: Caio – what is right for their country??? jaja!!! you have got to be kidding me!!! First, if ecuador knew what was right for them, they would stop messing with colombian government which is in control of over 60% of the energy in ALL of ecuador… what if they decided to leave 60% of Ecuador with no energy??? And second, Venezuela has nothing to do with colombia invading foreign territory because the deaths of these people where not in Venezuela…. third… Chavez is a guerrillero y un genocida que comete crimenes de guerra…. so shush it!!!! ignorant bitch
Why doesn't Perez's libral "Demon"cratic friends go and help fight his war?
I HOPE THAT FAT UGLY PIG DIES HORRIBLY SOON. I HATE CHAVEZ AND WHAT HES DONE T MY COUNTRY!! MONSTER!!
hi!! my name is manuela and i am from colombia and i live here, i think chavez is really stupid and colombia has the best president ever, he is really smart he cares for us, and is the first one to do something to stop las farc here. first correa said he suported colombia and in the minute chavez talked he start making a show. colombia has been terrified by las farc for years and now they say they are the people army?? and if chavez would have good intensions why dont he liverate poor people?? we dont whant war!! we already had enough. did enyone saw the images of the protest we all did against las farc and terrorism .. we are not afraid anymore we love our country and we will fight for it.
Re: nokillnobeepbeep – why ignorants?? eveything they say is true
Re: mark – mark are you serious??? you dont know what you are saying
Re: knud – stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dont talk if you dont know!!!!! the man our army kill is the principal murder, and kidnapper and you know what else he bouhgt uranio ( and yes that is the element to creat an atomik bomb) so shut upppp and chavez is know good??? he is helping them to buy it
Re: UKer – you know what?? we gave him to you as a present do whatevere you whant to do with him but take him away
Re: thomas plagemann – i know i have wrote this lots of times but you dont know what you are speking offff colombia is not your country!!! us havent ever control us we are free dont worry the only one that needs to go away is chavez
Re: luly – you know what??? VIVA URIBEEEEE ABAJOOO CHAVEZZZZ and you ignorant if you dindt know?? a law was created in 2001 and it sais that if a country needs to traspass a froteir because thay are followin a terrorist you can do ittttt
Re: mi colombia bella – mk porfinnnnn alguen q entiendeee la mayoria de los q hablan ak son unos idiotas ignorantes sin derecho d nadaaaaaa !
Re: Vale Yikes !!! – hi stupid???? you really know what you are talking about??? and where did you get the information from the media you idiot??? stop talking about what you dont knowwww at list he have done lots of thing for this country
Re: bbb – you really think the only thing colombia has is cocaine ??? stupidddddd stupiddddd stupidddd
Re: JESS-ECUA – pobre estupida!!!!! no estas hablando encrio??? gorda tu president es un terrorista y chavez tambn… y dime a q ecuatoriano mataron estupida a ningunoooo y tu no opines q est hecho no t afectaba a ti las farc no t a hecho nada a ti a nosotros siiiii a si q guarda tus malditas opiniones para el q le importeeeee
Re: xoxo – idota callat q a uribe no le importa??? pobre estupidoooo gordo piensa!!! despues tienes q ver noticieros y despues hablas vale??
Re: Duke Steele – first you idiot is COLOMBIA with O yes is not that hard columbia is a university you asshole… we dont only provide you ddrugadict!!!!! drugs we gave you energy coffy food gold lots of things so shut up you fucking ignoranttttttt
Re: ozkar – mira imbesil no t metas con colombianos bno????? y si tienes mucho amor no lo demuestras!!!! gordo primero mira tu president y despues criticas???? q hacia el en el computador a???? y eso si es valido?
Re: Caio – you ignorat dont talk if you dont know!!!!!
Re: COLOMBIA – Claro que protegemos terroristas, pues tenemos 100000 refugiados colombianos en el Ecuador a los que les damos de comer, vivienda, asilo,trabajo, a parte de todos los peores delincuentes comunes que nos tienen en sosobra y que resultan ser colombianos. A nosostros nos interesa que el problema en Colombia se solucione porque nos afecta porque toda la escoria cruza la frontera y realmente tenemos serios problemas como para preocuparnos tambien de eso. No nos interesan sus metodos pero ejecutenlos solo y en su pais, lo que queremos que entienda el mundo es que no QUEREMOS que VIOLEN ILEGALMENTE NUESTRO TERRITORIO y punto…
good one
racist bastard chavez. dictator tripper. get a decent dose of reality (and might i add education) before leading your country into termoil
Re: cami – Bitch would I write things that are not true?? many of uribe's cousins and relatives are in prison right now because of the many assassinations of innocent people and drug trafficking, Oscar Naranjo's brother is inprisoned in a jail in germany for drug trafficking, the colombian supreme court is conducting an investigation against "saint" president Uribe because of his strong links and support with paramilitarism, it is really sad how people forget about the other victims and think FARC are the only terrorists, please bitch why don't you go ahead and read about your colombia and stop repeating the shit the media tells you like a parrot !!!! DUMB BITCH !
chavez is SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he doesn't care about venezuela at all!!!!!!!!
Miss USA! I love ali Landry! And she's on mas vale Tarde con alex cambert this thursday! 11:30 pm
Go Ali!