Leader: Colombia's Military Action Puts Region at Risk
RECIFE, Brazil — While troops in Ecuador and Venezuela moved toward their borders with Colombia, leaders from those countries warned yesterday of a broader regional conflict if the worsening diplomatic dispute becomes a military confrontation.
Juan Carlos Hernandez / AP
Venezuelan soldiers gather as they prepare to board military buses to be transported to the Colombian border area at Fort Paramacay in Valencia, Venezuela, yesterday.
Ecuador's Rafael Correa visited Peru to begin a tour soliciting Latin American backing for sanctions against Colombia after its military crossed into Ecuador on Saturday to attack guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who use the frontier region as a sanctuary. Venezuela, which jumped into the dispute in support of Ecuador, announced that it would halt cross-border trade with Colombia.
"If this act goes unpunished, the whole region will be in danger, because the next victim could be Peru, it could be Brazil, it could be Venezuela, Bolivia, or any of our countries," Mr. Correa said in televised comments in Lima, Peru. "Colombia's attitude is creating a danger for the entire region and setting intolerable precedents."
But Colombia's Alvaro Uribe announced that he will ask the International Criminal Court to bring genocide charges against President Chavez, whom he has accused of sympathizing with the rebel group. Colombian officials contend that computer documents recovered in Saturday's cross-border raid revealed that Mr. Chavez had given more than $300 million to the FARC, the Marxist insurgency that has battled the Colombian government for more than 40 years.
Messrs. Correa and Chavez are vocal critics of the regional influence of America.
Backer for Uribe
President Bush criticized "provocative maneuvers" toward Colombia by President Chavez, saying yesterday that America stands with its ally, President Uribe. Mr. Bush said one of the chief ways that Washington can help Mr. Uribe is for Congress to approve a free-trade deal with Colombia. Though signed by the two countries in 2006, Capitol Hill's Democratic leaders have refused to pass the agreement, citing Colombia's standing as the deadliest country in the world for organized labor.
- Associated Press
