COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA: Tensions Simmer on Bilateral, Global Issues

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Mar 12 2003 (IPS) - Scepticism has emerged in relations between Colombia and Venezuela, two neighbours that are on different tracks with respect to the potential U.S. attack on Iraq, and which are exchanging barbs on the issues of terrorism, insurgent groups and trade.

Colombia and Peru "are the region’s governments that are most aligned behind unilateral U.S. military action against Iraq, which somewhat isolates Bogotá, because an attack without United Nations approval is opposed by Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela," neighbouring countries or partners in the Andean Community, international affairs export Carlos Romero told IPS.

Also opposed to U.S. unilateral action are the two governments in Latin America that currently hold non-permanent seats on the UN Security Council: Chile and Mexico.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is receiving unprecedented levels of military support from the United States, seen as a consequence of his complete support for the global campaign against terror that Washington launched after the Sep 11, 2001 attacks.

Meanwhile, Uribe’s counterpart in Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, is treated with some disdain and distrust by the U.S. government, a situation dating back to the Chávez administration’s criticism of the U.S.-led attack against Afghanistan in October 2001 and fuelled by actions and events in Venezuela since then.

Bogotá launched its own diplomatic campaign to convince its neighbours to declare the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrillas a terrorist organisation.

But Brasilia, Caracas and Quito have refused, saying that tagging the FARC as terrorists would undermine their governments’ efforts in the future if they are to serve as mediators in talks to end Colombia’s decades-long conflict.

"I don’t think it is a matter of Colombia taking advantage of this moment of war against Iraq, nor is it total alignment with Washington. Uribe sees his government policy for eradicating terrorism draws it into a strategic alliance with Washington," Marta de la Vega, political science professor at Simón Bolívar University, told IPS.

"That is the difference between Uribe, who seeks to rebuild the Colombian state, and Chávez, who tries to justify his new strategic alliances outside the western hemisphere against what has been dubbed savage neoliberalism, against imperialism and in favour of the anti-globalisation movement," she commented.

According to political expert Alberto Garrido, Colombia and Venezuela "are on the agenda of global war. In the Americas, the strategic ally of the United States is Colombia. Its plan for the region is known as Plan Colombia, directed by the (U.S. army’s) Southern Command, and was approved for fighting the illegal drug trade but was designed also to combat guerrillas."

Against this backdrop, the past two weeks have seen a heightened exchange of accusations and reproaches between the governments of Venezuela and Colombia.

On Feb 22, Colombia’s minister of interior, Fernando Londoño, said Venezuela’s reticence to declare the FARC terrorists was due to meetings between Venezuelan officials and the guerrilla group’s commanders.

Chávez responded the next day on his weekly radio and television programme "Aló, Presidente", asking Uribe to dedicate himself to governing his country, "because he has enough problems." And he asked, "What do you want? Should we break off relations?"

He also criticised the alleged interference of Spain and the United States in Venezuelan affairs.

On Feb 25, bombs were detonated outside the diplomatic missions of Colombia and Spain in Caracas.

On another front, Colombian mayors have affirmed that FARC leader Manuel "Tirofijo" Marulanda is in hiding in Venezuela. Uribe has said he is prepared to pursue the guerrillas "wherever they are, even in neighbouring countries."

Ministers and other officials from the two countries have participated in this volley of sometimes veiled accusations, and Venezuela’s foreign minister Roy Chaderton went so far as to accuse Colombia’s defence minister Martha Lucía Ramírez of "managing bilateral relations according to her mood."

Chávez spoke out against the Colombian guerrillas on Mar 2, in the following edition of his radio and TV programme. In the past few days, several presumed combatants from irregular Colombian forces were killed or detained in the border area by the Venezuelan military. Uribe suggested to Chávez that they should sit down and talk through these controversies away from cameras and microphones.

"It’s routine that when Colombia wants a top-level meeting, bilateral diplomatic relations begin to heat up," says Romero, professor of international studies at the Central University of Venezuela.

But the expert noted that this time other factors are involved. About the Colombian side, he said, "Uribe is aware that Chávez wants to intervene the debate within the Colombian armed forces, some of whose ‘nationalist’ officials are believed to have met with their Venezuelan counterparts."

Within the Colombian military "the debate has picked up because of the increased U.S. military presence (around 400 soldiers) and the actions to rescue the U.S. officers who were captured" recently by the FARC, commented Romero.

On the Venezuelan side, there is the perception that Colombia would serve as a springboard for what is seen as an international offensive to oust Chávez, who was removed from power for 48 hours during a failed coup d’état in April 2002, he said.

Fellow expert De la Vega says, "Venezuela could use increased bilateral tensions as a distraction from the country’s domestic situation, but that is not the case for Colombia."

Then there is the matter of bilateral trade, which in the 1990s served as the engine for Andean regional integration, but fell 30 percent in 2002 from the 2.3 billion dollars in exchange in 2001, according to the bilateral Chamber of Commerce and Integration. This year trade could fall another 20 percent.

Colombian exporters have been hurt by the decline in gross domestic product in Venezuela, which fell 8.9 percent in 2002 and is likely to shrink even more this year.

They are also suffering the consequences of the currency exchange restrictions that Chávez imposed in January, which left Venezuela importers without cash to pay for their international commitments.

Meetings Tuesday in Bogotá may help alleviate some of the tensions.

A gathering of Andean Community foreign ministers ended with Colombia’s Carolina Barco and Venezuela’s Chaderton agreeing to bring Uribe and Chávez together as soon as possible "to advance in the development of bilateral projects" for social and economic integration of their shared border areas.

Chaderton also took the opportunity to change his tone with regard to Colombia’s defence minister Ramírez, saying, "Personally, I hold her in high esteem and professionally I have deep respect for her."