Breaking: Venezuela-Colombia War Fears after Raid
Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 11:38:45 AM PDT
Tensions between Venezuela and Colombia have reached a new peak today as news has emerged the President Hugo Chavez has dispatched 10 brigades to the Colombian border in order to respond to any Colombian violation of Venezuelan territory.
BOGOTA (AFP) — Tensions in northwestern South America escalated sharply Sunday, with Venezuela shutting its embassy in Colombia following Bogota's cross-border raid into Ecuador that killed a top Colombian insurgent.
The raid Saturday by Colombia on a rebel jungle camp killed Raul Reyes, second-in-command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest leftist rebel group.
Ecuador bristled after the attack that it said violated it territorial sovereignty, while its ally Venezuela on Sunday announced the shuttering of its embassy in Colombia.
"I'm ordering the immediate withdrawal of all our personnel from the embassy in Bogota," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said.
His remarks came one day after Chavez alluded to the possibility of war if the Colombian military crosses into Venezuelan territory.
South America is on edge. The continuing offensive of the Colombian government against FARC guerrillas has led to greatly increased tensions with Venezuela, rising commodity prices have seen increased military aquisitions, and three distinct political blocks have emerged on the continent. I have previously written about the ongoing arms race in South America, and the potential it raised for conflict in the region.
In 2007, South America has seen a resurgence in arms purchases, and a dangerous game of power politics is developing in the region with uncertain alliances and rapidly shifting balances of power. On one hand there are nations deeply tied to the US and the world economy like Chile and Colombia. On the other are nations that reject US hegemony in the region, and seek a new world order in economics like Venezuela, and Bolivia. Hanging in the balance are nations like Brazil and Argentina who currently strive to remain neutral in the fight. But the two opposing camps are in the midst of an arms buildup.
First it was Venezuela, spending $4 billion on Russian fighter planes, Kalashnikovs and perhaps even submarines. Then it was Brazil, in August announcing a 53% increase in its military budget for 2008, the biggest such increase in more than a decade. The competition is still in the early stages but when two of Latin America's nouveau riche oil powers start splashing out on weapons, alarm bells ring over an arms race.
Indeed, Chavez's spending spree has given Brazil's long-dormant arms industry a bit of a political kick-start. Says Brazilian Senator Jose Sarney, a regular critic of Venezuela's president: "Hugo Chavez's armed forces have ordered 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 50 attack and transport helicopters, smart bombs, 24 Sukhoi Su-30 fighter planes. There is also talk of them buying nine submarines from Russia for $3 billion. It's very worrying. As Venezuela turns itself into a major military power, it obliges the other nations in South America to increase the power of their own forces. [An arms race] sadly seems to be getting under way."
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What the military build-up does, however, is give Chavez's Venezuela added prestige in the continental battle for political supremacy. Chavez has brought together South America's radical leftists under his socialist banner; while Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva leads a more measured coalition of social democrats. The two men are friends but both countries are getting used to being at the political and economic vanguard of South America. Military strength helps with that.
Even a limited engagement between Venezuelan and Colombian armed forces could unleash forces on the continet not seen since the Second World War. And with the US engaged in Iraq, there's little that can be done to pull the parties apart once things begin. This would make for one hell of a start to 2008.
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