It's been two weeks since Venezuelan President Chavez called his country to prepare for war against Colombia. Yesterday, Chavez announced the arrival of 300 Russian tanks, said anti-aircraft system were getting into place and continued to encourage Venezuelans to join militias. He rejected bilateral discussions with Uribe and as well as Colombia's bringing the issue to the OAS and UN.Colombian President Uribe continued to use softer rhetoric than his neighbor. He insisted that Colombia will never be the aggressor in a war against Venezuela and that there will never be a war between the "brother" nations. Colombia's foreign minister discussed the challenges of not being provoked by the Venezuelan government.
However, Colombia's Minister of Defense and military leadership met in Arauca and agreed to increase the number of troops on the border, leading at least one newspaper to claim "Colombia falls for Chavez's provocations." About 2,000 additional soldiers and additional border river patrols are expected.
Also adding to the tensions was the arrest of a Colombian paramilitary leader in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Colombia has a warrant out for her arrest as does Interpol. Colombia praised the arrest and requested her extradition from Venezuela. However, Venezuela used the incident to insinuate the paramilitary was part of a Colombian government plot.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Maduro said that Venezuela would look for guarantees of peace at the upcoming UNASUR/SADC meeting in Quito. That appears to back down from previous statements by Chavez insisting that the US and Colombia nullify their recent agreement. Guarantees that the US will not use Colombian bases to interfere with any third countries are already in the agreement.
In spite of saying UNASUR lacked the technical capacity last week, Ecuador's government later said UNASUR would attempt to mediate. Ecuador also said they will ask the South American Defense Council to look into allegations Colombia spied on Ecuador.
One reason a number of analysts are concerned is Chavez's continued rhetorical praise for people who committed significant acts of violence and human rights abuses. Last week Chavez praised Carlos the Jackal and Idi Amin as revolutionaries and patriots. He also had kind words for Mugabe and Ahmadinejad. In particular, the praise for Amin, whose regime was responsible for 300,000 deaths in eight years, is a disturbing sign.
