Colombia seeks criminal charges against Chavez

CUCUTA, Colombia: Venezuela and Ecuador reinforced their borders with Colombia on Tuesday as the three nations traded increasingly bitter accusations over Colombia's cross-border strike on a leftist guerrilla base in Ecuador.

Ecuador rejected a Colombian apology as insufficient, and sought international condemnation of the attack during an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States, convened in Washington to help defuse one of South America's most volatile crises in years. Venezuela's justice minister declared that war "has already begun."

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa called his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, a "bold-faced liar." Uribe demanded the International Criminal Court try Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for genocide. U.S. President George W. Bush accused Chavez of "provocative maneuvers."

At the moment, it's mostly a war of words, and other nations tried Tuesday to keep it that way, although many said Colombia was wrong to send troops into Ecuador. The Saturday raid killed 23 guerrillas, including rebel spokesman Raul Reyes, who was engaged in hostage talks with Venezuela, France and other countries.

Uribe said Chavez should be prosecuted for allegedly financing the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Uribe cited documents in a laptop seized in Reyes' jungle camp that he said showed Venezuela recently made a US$300 million (€200 million) payment to the rebels.

Colombia also accused the rebels of trying to make a radioactive dirty bomb, although the documents it shared with reporters don't support that allegation, indicating instead that the rebels were trying to buy uranium to resell at a profit. Both Venezuela and Ecuador dismissed all the allegations as lies.

Uribe said he would not allow his nation to be drawn into open war. His more than 250,000 U.S.-equipped, trained and advised soldiers, however, would outnumber the 172,000 active troops Venezuela and Ecuador have between them.

"Colombia has never been a country to go to war with its neighbors," Uribe said. "We are not mobilizing troops, nor advancing toward war."

Venezuela was sending about 9,000 soldiers — 10 battalions — to the border region as "a preventive measure," retired Gen. Alberto Muller Rojas, a former top Chavez aide, told The Associated Press. Ecuador said it sent 3,200 troops to the border on Monday.

Venezuela's agriculture minister, Elias Jaua, said Venezuela had closed the border — which sees annual trade worth US$5 billion (€3.29 billion) — to imports and exports. Leonardo Mendez, a spokesman for a Colombian cargo transport association, said some 300 vehicles, including trucks carrying food, shoes, ceramics and other products, were stuck.

Extra Venezuelan National Guard troops were stationed at the frontier bridge in steamy Cucuta, where 70 percent of cross-border trade occurs. Soldiers there searched people crossing from Colombia and turned away Colombian tractor-trailers, though they did let at least one truck in because it carried food. Venezuela has been suffering from shortages of milk, meat and other foodstuffs, which it imports from Colombia.

Ecuador's US$1.8 billion (€1.18 billion) annual trade with Colombia continued freely on Tuesday, said Carlos Lopez, Ecuador's undersecretary of immigration.

In Washington, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvador said Colombia's apology wasn't enough, demanding that the OAS condemn the incursion, appoint a commission to investigate it and call an urgent meeting of the region's foreign ministers in the next week.

Despite the withering rhetoric of Uribe, Chavez and Ecuador's President Rafael Correa — who called Uribe a "bold-faced liar" on Tuesday — the biggest losers in Reyes' death appeared to be the hostages the rebels want to swap for jailed guerrillas.

France's foreign ministry said Uribe knew France was communicating directly with Reyes in an attempt to secure the release of former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a dual French national who has become a cause celebre in Europe.

The rebels said Tuesday that Reyes died "completing a mission to arrange, through President Chavez, a meeting with (French) President (Nicolas) Sarkozy" aimed at securing Betancourt's release. Correa claimed his government, too, was talking to the FARC about securing freedom for hostages. He alleged Reyes' killing stymied those efforts.

Last week, the FARC released four hostages to Venezuela's justice minister, who said the Colombian raid proved the "intent of the fascist Colombian government is to hamper the handover of hostages."

Several Latin American leftist leaders have suggested the U.S. was intimately involved in executing the raid by 60 Colombian commandos that killed Reyes. Colombian military officials have said in the past that U.S. satellite intelligence and communications intercepts have been key to putting the FARC on the defensive.

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