COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA: Conflict Escalates in Military Terrain

• by Humberto Márquez (caracas)
• Monday, December 21, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Chávez said the aircraft spotted at midnight Sunday was a small spy drone using U.S. technology, and gave orders to shoot down any such planes overflying Venezuelan airspace in the future. He pointed out that the remote-controlled drones, which are two to three metres long, 'film everything, and even drop bombs.'

In response, Colombian Defence Minister Gabriel Silva quipped that 'perhaps the Venezuelan soldiers confused Father Christmas' sleigh with a spy plane,' after claiming that Colombia 'does not have the capacities' described by Chávez.

Armed forces commander Gen. Freddy Padilla said the Colombian military 'does not go outside of the limits of our nation when carrying out its missions,' and uses unmanned drones that are less than one metre long 'mainly to oversee oil pipelines, and they have no fire power.'

Since the Colombian government of President Álvaro Uribe announced in July that it had reached an agreement with Washington to allow the U.S. military to use seven air, naval and land bases in Colombia, Chávez has complained about plans for an attack on his country with the aim of toppling him and his socialist policies.

Tension has once again spiked between Colombia and Venezuela, and trade, which climbed to a record high of 7.2 billion dollars in 2008, has been cut in half. Diplomatic relations were suspended in July, mechanisms of political dialogue have disappeared amid mutual recriminations, life along the border is becoming more and more difficult, and both countries have beefed up defence.

'I warn the international community that the aggressions against Venezuela are increasing, and the preparations are obvious,' Chávez said Sunday.

In an interview with the Bogotá newspaper El Tiempo, Silva said 'we are preparing to avoid an attack. In Colombia we are focused on the internal threat, but the risk of an eventual external action against Colombia has appeared.

He also said 'Venezuela has invested billions of dollars in weapons.'

Colombia 'is preparing the terrain to attack and make Venezuela look like the aggressor, but we will not fall for the provocation, although we are on the alert,' said Chávez, who warned that 'if you attack Venezuela, you will regret it. The last thing we want is a war with Colombia, but we are not unarmed.'

For his part, Silva said 'in Colombia, we don't have our hands tied: we have the best army in Latin America, men and women who have combat experience. It's a world-class army.'

Colombia is the third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the world, after Israel and Egypt.

Last week, Colombia announced that it would build a new military base on the Guajira peninsula along its northern border with Venezuela and that it would activate six new air and special forces battalions, as part of its plan to boost its capacity to fight the guerrillas and drug trafficking, and to 'repel an external attack,' said the government.

'The situation seems almost predestined (to escalate) into an incident which, if it begins, would be catastrophic,' said Argentine academic Juan Tokatlián, who said each side 'sees the other as wanting to change its political regime.'

'Inflaming nationalist sentiment to calm domestic criticism or produce media events with a personal intention must be avoided at all cost. Irresponsibility at this time could have disproportionate costs in the future,' warned Tokatlián, a professor at universities in Colombia and Argentina.

Fernando Gerbasi, a former Venezuelan ambassador to Colombia, told IPS that 'this is not just another passing crisis, but a constant state of confrontation by Chávez against Colombia in the political, economic and military terrain.'

In his view, 'the crisis with Bogotá allows Chávez to confront (U.S. President Barack) Obama, via Colombia.'

The Dutch connection

Last week, in a meeting held parallel to the climate change summit in Copenhagen, Chávez accused the Netherlands of allowing the United States to use the Dutch islands of Aruba and Curaçao (30 km off the Venezuelan coast) to prepare a military attack on his country, saying 'the Yankee empire is packing the islands with war and spy planes and ships and intelligence agents.'

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen denied the allegations and called on the Venezuelan government to clarify the claims. He also said the U.S. had authorisation to use civil airports on islands near Venezuela as part of its fight against drugs, 'as Caracas knows.'

According to Venezuelan-American lawyer and analyst Eva Golinger, for the past three and a half years, war planes and ships have been using installations in Curacao with the pretext of fighting drug trafficking, but they serve as the spearhead for an attack against Venezuela.

Eleazar Díaz Rangel, director of the Caracas daily Últimas Noticias, said that on a visit to Curacao several years ago, he counted six U.S. F-16 fighter jets at the Hato airport on that island.

'Reports on movements at the U.S. bases on Curaçao and Aruba must be reliable for President Chávez to make the allegation he made in Copenhagen,' wrote Díaz Rangel.

According to Chávez, the military movements are aimed at building up a cordon 'that also threatens Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba,' all of which have left-wing governments, like Venezuela.

'It looks like Chávez is building the old thesis of the external enemy or threat, to try to ease his internal difficulties,' Edmundo González, a former Venezuelan ambassador to Argentina and Algeria, told IPS.

He was referring to the drop in oil prices and the impact of the global economic crisis on oil-rich Venezuela.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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