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CURIEPE, Venezuela – National Guard troops seized control of a police station controlled by a leading opponent of President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday, sparking clashes between troops and protesters that police said left six injured. Hundreds of townspeople massed outside the police station in this small town east of Caracas after the National Guard evicted police. The protesters hurled rocks, bottles and molotov cocktails. Troops in riot gear fired tear gas at the crowd.

CARACAS, Venezuela – Dozens of National Guard troops seized control of a police station controlled by a leading opponent of President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday, adding to tensions between Venezuela's government and elected opposition officials. About 40 National Guard troops tossed tear gas canisters at a police precinct post in the town of Curiepe, east of Caracas, shortly before dawn, said Elisio Guzman, director of the Miranda state police. He said the officers inside were forced to leave and the National Guard occupied the building. Guzman said the motive behind the takeover was unclear and national government officials could not...

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Sunday put his troops on alert over a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was killed or kidnapped. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez speaks at the ALBA summit in Maracay, some 100 km west from Caracas June 24, 2009. (REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Files) Chavez said Honduran soldiers took away the Cuban ambassador and left the Venezuelan ambassador on the side of a road after beating him during the army's coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. The Honduran army ousted Zelaya and exiled him on Sunday in...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan troops mobilized for the Colombian border on Tuesday after President Hugo Chavez ordered 10 battalions to the frontier. Hundreds of Venezuelan troops were seen boarding four buses and eight trucks at the Paramaracay base in the central city of Valencia on Tuesday morning. A helicopter flew overhead. A base official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were heading for the Colombian border, though she didn't specify the location. Elsewhere, in the northern state of Lara, pro-Chavez Gov. Luis Reyes said Tuesday that batallions in his state were heading for the border. "There are mobilizations...

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said on Tuesday he would denounce Venezuela's Hugo Chavez in international court in a growing Andean dispute after Venezuela and Ecuador cut diplomatic ties with Bogota and ordered troops to their neighbor's frontier. Colombia has accused Chavez and Ecuador's President Rafael Correa of links to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC guerrillas and the crisis was triggered by a raid by Colombian troops inside Ecuador to kill a top guerrilla boss. "Colombia proposes to denounce the President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez in the International Criminal Court for sponsoring and financing genocide," Uribe told reporters....

It is the nature of socialist countries to try to expand and attack their neighbors. North Vietnam took South Vietnam. China took Tibet. The Soviet Union took everything it could. So it makes me wonder if Chavez isn’t looking for a reason to invade Columbia. He certainly has been building up his military for some reason, and now has taken to open threats against his neighbors.

Venezuela threatened to declare war on neighbouring Colombia last night, raising the prospect of the U.S. being drawn into conflict in South America. Venezuela's Left-wing president Hugo Chavez ordered ten tank battalions to the Colombian border and put war-planes under emergency stand-by. The tension follows Colombia's decision to send its army to strike against anti-government guerrillas hiding in the jungles of Ecuador. The surprise attack - launched without Ecuador's permission - killed Raul Reyes, a top commander in the Left-wing Colombian rebel group Farc, and about 16 of his men. President Chavez yesterday closed the Colombian embassy in Caracas, warning...

Venezuela and Ecuador sent troops to their borders with Colombia on Sunday after their Andean neighbor bombed Colombian rebels inside Ecuador in an attack Caracas said could spark a war. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also deployed tanks to the frontier, mobilized warplanes and withdrew his diplomats from Bogota in the worst dispute in the unstable region for years. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, a close ally of the leftist, anti-U.S. Chavez, expelled Colombia's ambassador and recalled his own envoy from Bogota in protest over what he said was an intentional violation of his nation's sovereignty. Colombia responded to Correa by offering...

President Hugo Chavez ordered Venezuela's embassy in Colombia closed and sent thousands of troops to the countries' border after Colombia's military killed a top rebel leader. The leftist leader warned that Colombia's slaying of rebel commander Raul Reyes could spark a war in South America, sending relations between the nations to their lowest point in Mr Chavez's nine-year presidency. Speaking on his weekly TV and radio programme, Mr Chavez told his defence 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.

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez ordered tank battalions to the Colombian border on Sunday after Colombian troops struck inside another of its neighbors, Ecuador, in an attack on rebels. He also ordered the shutting of Venezuela's embassy in Colombia and the withdrawal of all diplomatic staff in the dispute, warning Colombia's actions could spark a war in South America. (Reuters)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is sending 10 battalions of troops to country's border with Colombia. He's also ordered the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota closed and say all embassy personnel will be withdrawn from Colombia. The announcements by Venezuela's leftist leader pushed relations with its neighbor to their tensest point of his 9-year presidency. Chavez is also warning that Colombia could spark a war in South America, calling its U.S.-allied government "a terrorist state" and labeling President Alvaro Uribe (oo-REE'-bay) "a criminal."

US: Venezuela purchases four times more weapons than it needs The two senior US intelligence chiefs Wednesday said Venezuela has purchased up to four times the number of weapons it needs for domestic defense, with a goal to destabilize countries in the region that are close to the United States, such as Colombia. J. Michael McDonnell, US National Security Director, and lieutenant general Michael D. Maples, the Director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), make their comments about Venezuela's buildup of arms during a hearing at the US Senate Armed Services Committee, AP reported. McDonnell said Venezuela was now...