The presidents of Colombia and Venezuela met in Caracas this week to patch up frazzled relations after the worst diplomatic row between the South American neighbours for decades.
Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe was greeted with a 21-gun salute on his arrival in Caracas to meet Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, who barely a month ago had threatened to break off commercial and diplomatic relations.
The diplomatic row was triggered by Venezuela’s outrage at what it called the Colombian-sponsored ”kidnapping” of a known leader of Colombia’s Farc guerrillas in Caracas last December.
Colombian officials acknowledged they had paid bounty hunters to capture the rebel and take him to the border where he was officially arrested. But they claimed that repeated requests to the Venezuelan government for the rebel’s capture had been ignored, and accused Caracas of harbouring wanted rebels.
Incendiary language from both governments led to a suspension of some cross-border trade and Venezuela withdrew its ambassador in Bogota, demanding an apology from Colombia for what it called a ”violation of sovereignty”.
Instead, Colombia sent Venezuela what it said was evidence of at least 10 rebel leaders who frequently travel to the neighbouring country or have taken up residence there.
Tensions died down late last month when, through the mediation of several Latin American countries, especially Cuba, Colombia issued a communiqué that stated that Bogota would review the incident so that, ”if it was deemed inconvenient by Venezuela, it will not be repeated”.
Chavez accepted the communiqué as the apology he had demanded, but said the dispute would only be completely resolved after a face-to-face meeting with the Colombian leader.
The two presidents had originally been due to meet on February 3, but the meeting had to be postponed because Uribe fell ill.
Other bilateral concerns were also discussed, including a Venezuelan arms build-up that has raised eyebrows both in Bogota and in Washington.
Venezuela has already made a deal to buy at least 10 military helicopters and 100 000 assault rifles from Russia.
Chavez is also negotiating a $170-million (about R1-billion) deal to buy up to 24 Super Tucano multipurpose combat aircraft from the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer with the Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was in Caracas this week.
”We have serious concerns about how Venezuela will secure these armaments and the thousands of rifles they will replace,” said Adam Ereli, a United States State Department spokesperson.
Colombia and the US are concerned that the weapons could end up in the hands of Colombia’s two left-wing rebel armies, which have been fighting against the state for more than four decades.
Chavez has dismissed the concerns of Washington, saying the US would probably not have objected to the arms purchases had they been made from the US defence industry.
Also on the agenda was severe flooding, which has claimed at least 86 lives in the two countries in the past few days. — Â