Replies

Venezuela bombed irregular Colombian forces: Chavez *** CARACAS (AFP) - President Hugo Chavez said he had ordered what was Venezuela's first bombing raid against suspected Colombian irregular forces inside Venezuelan territory.

………. Chavez said that to deter any actions by Colombian irregulars he will be sending in an elite army unit and bolstering air patrols along the 2,200-kilometer (1,367 mile) border with Colombia.

Late Sunday, Bogota's ambassador to Caracas, Carlos Rodolfo Santiago, denounced alleged moves by Venezuelan farmers in the border region to form paramilitary units to protect themselves from Colombian leftist guerrillas. "Some farmers want to create their own groups for protection, and that is totally forbidden in Venezuela," the diplomat told Radio Caracol, alluding to complaints from Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel that Colombian paramilitaries were acting "with total impunity" on the frontier.

He said there might be connections between the proposed paramilitary groups and the right wing Self-Defense Units of Colombia (AUC) who are involved in a mortal struggle with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

The opposition in Caracas as well as Colombian media and politicians have repeatedly accused the leftist-populist Chavez government of tolerating and even aiding Colombian rebels inside Venezuela. Chavez has denied the charges, attributing them to an international conspiracy against his government.***

U.S. giving Latin war foes cold shoulder *** There is a fierce fight within the Bush administration over how the United States should deal with neighboring countries that opposed the U.S. war on Iraq. And the hard-liners are winning. Judging from interviews with senior U.S. officials in recent days, the Bush administration's level of annoyance is escalating with countries such as Mexico and Chile, which have refused to support U.S.-backed resolutions at the U.N. Security Council, or Canada, Argentina and Brazil, which have opposed the war with various degrees of intensity.

At first, the official U.S. line -- both publicly and privately -- was that there would be no retaliation against countries that did not support the war. Washington would not give leaders of these countries the cold shoulder, nor suddenly find previously undetected bugs in their countries' fruit exports, officials said. But now that the war is in full swing -- and Mexico is scheduled to take over the chairmanship of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday -- the hard-liners within the Bush administration are taking their gloves off. Countries that support Bush will be rewarded, and those that don't will get the cold treatment, the hawks say.***