Chavez Sends Troops to Colombian Border
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
CARACAS — President Chavez ordered Venezuela’s embassy in Colombia closed and sent thousands of troops to the countries’ border today after Colombia’s military killed a top rebel leader.
The leftist leader warned that Colombia’s slaying of a rebel commander, Raul Reyes, could spark a war in South America and the angry rhetoric sent relations between the nations to their lowest point in Mr. Chavez’s nine-year presidency.
Speaking on his weekly TV and radio program, Mr. Chavez told his defense minister: “move 10 battalions to the border with Colombia for me, immediately.” He ordered the Venezuelan Embassy in Bogota closed and said all embassy personnel would be withdrawn.
Mr. Chavez, a fierce critic of Washington, called the American-allied government in Bogota “a terrorist state” and labeled President Uribe “a criminal.”
Mr. Chavez condemned Colombia’s slaying of Reyes and 16 other guerrillas yesterday, saying they were killed while they slept in a camp across the border in Ecuadorean territory. He said Colombia “invaded Ecuador, flagrantly violated Ecuador’s sovereignty.”
“It wasn’t any combat. It was a cowardly murder, all of it coldly calculated,” Mr. Chavez said.
“We pay tribute to a true revolutionary, who was Raul Reyes,” Mr. Chavez said, recalling that he had met rebel in Brazil in 1995 and calling him a “good revolutionary.”
Mr. Chavez said he had just spoken to Ecuador’s President Correa and that Ecuador was also sending troops to its border with Colombia.
“The Colombian government has become the Israel of Latin America,” Mr. Chavez said, mentioning another country that he has criticized for its military strikes. “We aren’t going to permit Colombia to become the Israel of these lands.”
Mr. Chavez accused Mr. Uribe of being a puppet of Washington and acting on behalf of the American government, saying “Dracula’s fangs (are) are covered in blood.”
“Some day Colombia will be freed from the hand of the (U.S.) empire,” Mr. Chavez said. “We have to liberate Colombia,” he added, saying Colombia’s people will eventually do away with its government.
The U.S. State Department had no immediate reaction to Mr. Chavez’s comments.
