Posted on 11/15/2009 1:33:59 PM PST by bruinbirdman
The threat of a war between Venezuela and Colombia increased over the weekend after both countries deployed more troops along their border and President Hugo Chavez branded his Colombian counterpart a "mafioso".
Tensions between the countries reached a new high after the Colombian military arrested four Venezuelan soldiers, just days after Mr Chavez told his army to "prepare for war" with Colombia.
The Venezuelan ambassador to Bogota, Gustavo Marquez, said that the seriousness of the situation could not be overstated and that "there is a pre-war situation in the entire region".
Diplomatic relations between the South American neighbours are frozen and on Saturday President Chavez escalated the war of words with President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia by saying there was no chance of dialogue.
"Uribe is not a politician, he comes from the world of paramilitaries, of drug trafficking, of shady business deals, and he is capable of anything," the Venezuelan leader said.
"He is a very dangerous man as he has no principles or ethics," Mr Chavez added.
The broadside came after Colombia detained four members of the Venezuelan National Guard in a boat allegedly on Colombian territory in the remote border province of Vichada. Colombia said yesterday that it would deport the men back to Venezuela.
Tensions between Presidents Uribe and Chavez have escalated in recent months as the two leaders have become increasingly suspicious of each other.
Colombia's Marxist rebels, the Guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN), are known to have bases within Venezuela from where they plan and launch attacks on Colombia's US-backed army.
Mr Chavez hotly denies any links with the rebels, even though there have been seizures of Venezuelan arms and munitions in FARC camps.
Venezuela's president is angry at
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
And you would certainly know about that subject, wouldn't you Mr. Chavez?
Palin with Colombian President Uribe.
Obama and Venezuelan Marxist Dictator Chavez.
Interesting that none of the “great” minds in the media haven't stumbled onto this explanation.
“Weakness invites confrontation”.
- Donald Rumsfeld.
What are Hillary and Obama going to do about this? Whre is their call for Chavez to leave Colombia alone?
Oh wait, Oba Mao doesn’t object to hostilities by Chavez.
Sorry, move along now, nothing to see here.
If Dubya (or even Clinton) was in the White House there would be no talk of war.
If Chavez has any brains he’ll restrict this bluster to bluster. Columbia’s forces are better trained and better equipped (with US rather than ex-soviet junk), not to mention more battle-hardened than those of Venezuala. Plus there is the factor that waging war on a US ally is generally a bad idea....
If Chavez has any brains he’ll restrict this bluster to bluster. Columbia’s forces are better trained and better equipped (with US rather than ex-soviet junk), not to mention more battle-hardened than those of Venezuala. Plus there is the factor that waging war on a US ally is generally a bad idea....
With you till the end, in 2009 I'm not sure being a US ally matters.
That’s exactly why Chavez is doing this. There are food shortages in VZ, not to mention power and fuel shortages (this in a country that used to make its living on oil), Chavez has already expropriated almost everything he could and he has spent big bucks on buying arms from Iran, so the treasury is a little depleted now and there won’t be any bread and circuses for awhile...
What better time for a war?
Wouldn’t matter what the great zero objects to. He’s a complete pussy, and the entire world knows it. Unfortunately our allies are the ones who are going to pay the price.
We have mutual defense treaties with both Colombia and Honduras. I think that one of the things that may finally have made Bambi back off on Honduras was the fact that perhaps he couldn’t find any legal way of making the US Army stand down and let Chavez invade Honduras to put Zelaya back in charge (which Chavez was threatening to do).
I’m puzzled by Colombia. Congress actually just set aside more money for more US bases there. However, at the same time, Chavez wouldn’t be making all this noise about attacking Colombia unless he had gotten the green light from Obama, so I don’t know how we should look at this. Perhaps it’s just saber-rattling for domestic (VZ) consumption.
“Uribe is not a politician, he comes from the world of paramilitaries, of drug trafficking, of shady business deals, and he is capable of anything,” the Venezuelan leader said.
“He is a very dangerous man as he has no principles or ethics,” Mr Chavez added.
WHOA! He’s projecting more than a demorat.
There are US troops in Colombia, so whether Obama liked it or not, the US would be involved if Chavez attacked...
You’re both right, I guess I’m just skeptical of the administrations reaction. Our forces can simply be kept out of the way. I’m not sure how much our treaty obligations matter. We’ll send a peace delegation after the fact, I don’t think we’ll fight, I question whether we’d apply much diplomatic pressure. Were I Columbia, I’d presume I’m on my own, and be grateful for any help provided.
Is that what they call “Wag the Dog”?
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