CARACAS — Venezuela and Ecuador ordered troops to their borders with Colombia, sharply raising tensions after Colombia killed a top rebel leader on Ecuadorean soil.

President Chavez yesterday promised Venezuela would respond militarily if Colombia violates its border, where he ordered tanks as well as thousands of troops. He also ordered closed Venezuela’s embassy in Bogota.

President Correa of Ecuador said he deployed troops to the border while also withdrawing his government’s ambassador from Bogota and expelling Colombia’s top diplomat.

“There is no justification,” Mr. Correa said last night, snubbing an earlier announcement from Colombia that it would apologize for the military incursion.

Mr. Chavez called the killing of a rebel leader and spokesman, Raul Reyes, and 16 other guerrillas on Saturday an attack by a “terrorist state,” saying it shows President Uribe of Colombia is a “criminal.”

“Mr. Defense Minister, move 10 battalions to the border with Colombia for me, immediately — tank battalions. Deploy the air force,” Mr. Chavez said during his weekly TV and radio program. “We don’t want war, but we aren’t going to permit the U.S. empire, which is the master (of Colombia) … to come divide us.”

Mr. Correa said Colombia deliberately carried out the strike beyond its borders, flying deep into Ecuador to bomb the rebel camp from the south. The Ecuadorean leader said the rebels were “bombed and massacred as they slept, using precision technology.”

The Colombian military said the camp was located just over a mile from the border.

Colombian officials have long complained that rebels are allowed to take refuge across its borders in both Ecuador and Venezuela.

Colombia said after the assault that FARC “terrorists” including Reyes “have had the custom of killing in Colombia and taking refuge in the territory of neighboring countries.”

In Chile, President Bachelet offered to mediate in the conflict.

“A situation like this requires an explanation from Colombia to Ecuadoreans, to the Ecuadorean president and to the entire region,” Mr. Bachelet said. “We are very worried.”

President Calderon of Mexico also offered to help and urged the countries to begin talking “within the framework of the appropriate regional organizations.”