Uribe- Chavez summit said to patch things up

[Moses]

Uribe and Chavez 'clear up row'

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe have "decided to turn the page" after weeks of tension over a diplomatic row.

Mr Chavez said he and Mr Uribe had cleared things up in a meeting that lasted more than four hours.

Venezuela froze links with its neighbour last month after Colombian officials admitted paying to help catch a Colombian rebel leader in Venezuela.

Ties had improved since Mr Uribe vowed to respect Venezuela's sovereignty.

The Caracas talks, first scheduled for earlier this month, had been delayed because Mr Uribe had an ear infection.

After weeks of tensions, Mr Chavez warmly greeted Mr Uribe on the tarmac of the airport in the Venezuelan capital.

He was later seen putting his arm around Mr Uribe's shoulder at the Miraflores presidential palace.

"We have turned the page now to settle what was left undone, speed up accords that were delayed or halted, and clear up things that were confused," Mr Chavez said at a joint press conference with Mr Uribe after the meeting.

He also said that commercial and trade agreements that had been frozen during recent weeks would be "reactivated".

Severed ties

Mr Uribe said he and Mr Chavez "have a commitment" to increasing security along their shared border.

"We are dedicated to fighting terrorism, in any form," Mr Chavez added.

They both acknowledged Cuban President Fidel Castro, and the leaders of Peru and Brazil, for their roles in lowering tensions between the two neighbours.



The dispute with Venezuela arose after Colombia admitted that it had paid bounty hunters who had captured a Colombian Marxist rebel leader in Caracas.

Colombia paid mercenaries to capture Granda


Rodrigo Granda, a commander in Colombia's largest left-wing rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), was kidnapped in Caracas in mid-December.

Venezuela - which blames the US for provoking the crisis - accused Colombia of violating its national sovereignty and demanded an apology.

Colombia - a strong US ally - asked how Granda was able to attend a left-wing conference in Caracas at the time and get a Venezuelan passport.

Caracas severed both diplomatic and business ties - worth an estimated $1.7bn (£900m) last year - and cast doubt on the future a $200m natural gas pipeline project between the two nations.

In late January, the Colombian leadership issued a statement assuring Venezuela that the incident would not be repeated.

Earlier this month, Mr Chavez said he regarded the dispute as "practically over".

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Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4268619.stm

Published: 2005/02/16 07:46:57 GMT

© BBC MMV

[camaxtle]

To bad Uribe is a White House Pawn. Maybe if he looked around he might see the benefit of joining with Chavez and providing a unified front against U.S. imperialism.
Colombias civil war is far from over. Their solution to the fighting between leftists and conservatives was no solution at all.
I bet if Colombia wasn't supported by the U.S. the FARC would probably overrun the government. Colombia needs real genuine change, not this change from liberal to conservative every six years. It's almost like the government is being held hostage.

[Moses]

Senator Hollings bemoaned our financial and military support for Columbia 5 years ago when the Dems briefly were the majority in Senate. He said we should make it a rule NEVER to support a government that operates a paramilitary. He had been to Columbia many times, and he said it is a horrible mess.

Unfortunately, he didn't set policy for the Democratic Party.

[Moses]

Chavez sez Bush has plot to assasinate him

....Relations between Washington and the left-wing Venezuelan leader have been strained since Mr Chavez took office in 1999. His determination to raise the price of oil and his close friendship with Mr Castro have served as a constant irritant to Washington.

In recent years, relations have been strained further as Mr Chavez became a vocal critic of US policy both in Latin America and around the world. American officials have also expressed concern about Venezuela's decision to improve China's access to its oil fields.

Mr Chavez accuses the CIA of having a hand in the military coup that briefly deposed him in 2002, and says the US continues to back his political opponents.


The Bush administration has denied involvement in the attempted overthrow, but appeared to give its approval at the time. A prosecutor investigating the coup attempt died last year when his car was booby-trapped with explosives.

The Chavez government suggested the assassination had been carried out by former Venezuelan officers who were involved in the putsch, some of whom now live in exile in America.

The US has stepped up its rhetoric against the Venezuelan president lately, with the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, calling the country a "negative force" in Latin America and accusing Mr Chavez of turning it into a totalitarian society.

Many in Washington suspect that Mr Chavez may be supporting Marxist rebels in neighbouring Colombia, a country that has received billions of dollars in military aid from the US.

Venezuela's recent purchase of 100,000 rifles and 40 helicopters caused concern in Washington and Colombia. Mr Chavez denies setting off a new regional arms race, saying the armaments are for defence alone.

Despite the feud between their governments, the two countries' economies remain entwined. Oil is Venezuela's largest export and the US buys about 1.5m barrels a day, making it the fourth-largest supplier of American oil. ...

(Full story at link)

[camaxtle]

My experience in Colombia
Several years ago I was a study abroad student and was living in Bogota with a family.
During this time Colombia was experiencing a drought, at least thats what they said. The reason this is so important is because most of the electiricity to Bogota was generated by Hydro electric. Anyway they needed to start blacking out large parts of the city to save water. Then they had the clocks set ahead one hour, then two hours. I kid you not. There were large parts of Bogota blacked out at night. Well you can imagine that the crime rate went up.
Why am I telling you this because Colombia's present government doesn't have a clue, and begging at Uncle Sams table like a dog isn't going to help.