Mood:
d'ohNow Playing: Tension on Border of Venezuela & Colombia
Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
Agence France-Presse
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November 21, 2009
Colombia says its military on 'maximum alert'
BOGOTA: Colombia warned its forces were on "maximum alert" and were
prepared to defend against any attack, amid rising tensions with
neighboring Venezuela.
Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva issued the warning after a
meeting of the country's national security council in Arauca, a city
on the eastern border with Venezuela.
He said President Alvaro Uribe and the military forces of Colombia
were intent on remaining calm "because they know there are provocative
forces on the border that must be avoided at all cost."
But this "does not mean that we are not prepared or are not on maximum
alert to prevent any aggression against Colombia, against Colombians
or against our territory."
Uribe's national security council met for five hours in Arauca with
military and police commanders in the border area a day after Bogota
charged that Venezuelan troops had blown up two footbridges across the
border in northeastern Colombia.
Venezuela said Thursday the bridges were destroyed because they were
being used by drug traffickers and smugglers.
The two neighbors have long been at odds, but tensions have sharpened
in recent months over a US-Colombian agreement giving the US military
access to seven Colombian bases.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on July 28 suspended diplomatic
relations with Colombia and earlier this month warned his nation to
"prepare for war."
Colombia responded by lodging a diplomatic note with the UN Security
Council accusing Caracas of threatening to use force against it.
Caracas then accused Bogota of detaining four of its soldiers in a
border river's international waters.
The four members of Venezuela's national guard, who were detained in
Colombia Saturday and released a day later, were not on Colombian
territory when they were taken, a Venezuelan national guard general
insisted.
