Leaders of Venezuela, Colombia mend relations

Associated Press
July 12, 2008
By Rachel Jones

Paraguana- Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Colombia's Alvaro Uribe mended relations Friday after months of sniping that threatened trade and unleashed a diplomatic crisis between Latin America's top U.S. opponent and closest U.S. ally.

Chavez, who just months ago called reconciliation impossible, said the talks allowed the two to "completely turn the page after the storm that passed."

"From today on begins a new era," Chavez said after the closed-door talks. "We're destined to be together."

Despite their deep differences, Uribe said "we're brothers" and gave Chavez a book about South American independence hero Simon Bolivar during their talks at the Paraguana oil refining complex on the Caribbean coast.

It was their first one-on-one meeting since August.

Analysts say the two are setting aside their on-and-off feud because each benefits politically from normalized relations. The countries are key commercial partners, with $6 billion in trade last year, and the leaders pledged to link the Andean neighbors with a new railway.

Relations sank to their lowest point in decades in March after Colombia attacked a rebel camp in Ecuador. Chavez responded by briefly dispatching troops to Venezuela's border with Colombia and temporarily pulling out his ambassador.

Uribe said he hopes relations can be similarly restored with Ecuador's leftist government, and Chavez said he believes it's possible.

"I'm sure President (Rafael) Correa would also be willing — I think so — to re-establish direct relations with Colombia as we have today," said Chavez, who is expected to raise the matter in a visit to Ecuador next week.

Chavez reiterated his willingness to help mediate in Colombia's four-decade conflict with leftists rebels, but only if invited.

"We've tried to help in (Colombia's) internal matters only when it's been asked of us," Chavez said.

During a spat over Chavez's mediation role with Colombian rebels earlier this year, the Venezuelan president called Uribe a "pawn of the U.S. empire" and likened him to a mafia boss.

Colombia, meanwhile, accused Chavez of offering an open-ended loan of at least $250 million to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC — charges bolstered by documents Uribe's government said were retrieved from a laptop at the bombed guerrilla camp. Colombian officials also have said Venezuela has long harbored several rebel leaders.

Chavez has denied the accusations, and Uribe did not publicly bring them up.

"We came out refreshed and relieved," Chavez said after four hours of talks.

Chavez made reconciliation easier for Uribe last month when he called on the FARC to disarm and give up its hostages — after previously urging world leaders to consider the FARC a legitimate army of insurgents rather than a terrorist group.

In a news conference after the meeting, Uribe blamed the rebels for flouting past peace initiatives.

"On many occasions in Colombia, all the conditions for definitive peace have been created (but) the terrorists haven't wanted to," Uribe said. "Many citizens of the world have tried to mediate. ... The answer was more violence."

Uribe said Venezuela and Cuba have helped in talks with rebels of the smaller National Liberation Army, or ELN, but said those rebels responded "without advances toward peace."

Through Chavez's mediation, the FARC freed six hostages earlier this year. The FARC said subsequently that it was finished with unilateral releases, and Colombia's military rescued 15 rebel-held hostages last week in a bold operation that pushed Uribe's popularity to new highs.

"Uribe is strengthened internationally," while "Chavez has realized he was riding the losing horse" and has expediently adjusted his stance, said Rafael Nieto, a Colombian analyst and former deputy justice minister.

Adolfo Tayhardat, an analyst and former Venezuelan diplomat, said Uribe is looking to defend Colombian trade while Chavez is aiming to ease the conflict and shore up support ahead of state and local elections in November.

The FARC issued a statement on Friday condemning what it called the "betrayal" of two guerrillas who had been responsible for holding the 15 hostages freed by Colombian troops, and said it remains open to trading other hostages for imprisoned guerrillas.