Starting with Venezuelan President Chavez's speech on Tuesday night, every Venezuelan official has made sure their talking points include a line about Venezuela not being the aggressor. They clearly realize that Chavez's statement last weekend that told Venezuela to "prepare for war" made Venezuela appear to be the aggressor. They are trying to back away from that image now.Those talking points haven't stopped Chavez and others in the Venezuelan government from trying to portray Colombia and the US as the aggressors. They said Colombia "invaded" Venezuela's radioelectric space when a Colombian Army radio station was heard across the border where a Venezuelan government radio is usually broadcast. They continue to claim the US is plotting invasion without any evidence beyond the now public base agreement. Today's El Tiempo has an editorial on Venezuela's "drums of war."
Colombia sent a note to the UN Security Council asking them to look into Chavez's threats. Yesterday, Colombia arrested four Venezuelan soldiers in Colombian territory. Colombia is treating the incident as an accident (the border is not always clearly marked) rather than overreacting and will return the troops to Venezuela.
Most troubling has been Venezuela closing off diplomatic efforts to resolve the tensions more peacefully. Earlier in the week, Chavez rejected offers by Brazil to assist in monitoring the border. Venezuela was offended by Colombia asking the UN for help. Yesterday, Chavez said he will refuse to talk to Uribe, whom he called a traitor. This week's Semana looks at the concern that the UN, OAS, UNASUR and others don't seem to be helping to calm the tensions. While Colombia is keeping dialogue open and asking for international help, Venezuela doesn't appear to want that.
