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BOGOTA-Tensions in northwestern South America escalated sharply Sunday, with Venezuela shutting its embassy in Colombia following Bogota's cross-border raid into Ecuador that killed a top Colombian insurgent.The raid Saturday by Colombia on a rebel jungle camp killed Raul Reyes, second-in-command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest leftist rebel group.
Ecuador bristled after the attack that it said violated it territorial sovereignty, while its ally Venezuela on Sunday announced the shuttering of its embassy in Colombia."I'm ordering the immediate withdrawal of all our personnel from the embassy in Bogota," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said.His remarks came one day after Chavez alluded to the possibility of war if the Colombian military crosses into Venezuelan territory."President Uribe, think about it long and hard. You had better not get the idea of doing this on our territory, because it would be a 'causus belli', cause for a war," Chavez said Saturday in his first reaction to the raid."This is something very grave which is unprecedented in our lands," Chavez said, adding that he had telephoned Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa "and we agreed to keep exchanging information" about the raid.Meanwhile, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has also recalled his country's ambassador to Bogota and warned the action might result in "ultimate consequences" because of "the offense" suffered by his country.Correa canceled a visit that had been planned for Cuba on Monday to deal with the "very difficuls situation" at on the homefront, and Ecuador's foreign ministry lodged a formal protest with Bogota demanding an explanation.
Colombia, for its part, insisted Sunday that it did not violate Ecuador's sovereignty, because its military operations one day earlier were taken for "legitimate defense."In a statement from its foreign ministry, Bogota added that it would issue a formal response to Correa's letter. "Terrorists, including Raul Reyes, customarily have carried out assassinations in Colombia, and then fled to neighboring countries for refuge," the response from Bogota read.Uribe telephoned Correa to talk to him about the operation, but it was unclear if they spoke before or after the raid. Correa said he had deployed troops to the area to "verify" what had taken place.Reyes was in a rebel camp located 1.8 kilometers (a mile) from the Ecuadoran-Colombian border when the air force began bombing shortly after midnight, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told a news conference.Colombian ground troops were then deployed into the guerrilla hideout to secure the area, Santos said. A total of 17 guerrillas and one soldier were killed in the operation."It is the heaviest blow ever dealt against this terrorist group," Santos said.Reyes, 59, whose real name was Luis Edgar Devia, was a union leader working for Swiss food giant Nestle in the southern department of Caqueta when he joined the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the 1970s.Reyes had been viewed as a possible successor to the group's 77-year-old boss, Manuel Marulanda.His killing was a major coup for Uribe, who has taken a hard stance against the 17,000-strong FARC, South America's biggest insurgency which has bedeviled successive governments since the 1960s.It was the first time that one of the seven members of FARC's secretariat, or leadership council, was killed in combat.Reyes' death came three days after the FARC unilaterally released four former lawmakers who had been held hostage for years, handing them to the Venezuelan government and the Red Cross in a snub to Uribe.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080302/ts_afp/venezuelacolombiaecuadorrebels_080302190053;_ylt=ArEsVtIO4Bg8D4lsmtjtqw6FOrgF
As in the days of Noah....
