Colombia-Venezuela ties continue to fester

Tensions are bubbling once more along the rugged 1,200-mile border between Venezuela and Colombia.

Using videos and photos, Colombian diplomats accused Venezuela of tolerating the presence of 1,500 leftist rebel fighters and several top leaders in its territory. They made the charges in a presentation Thursday before the Organization of American States.

They requested an international body to monitor the border and verify the presence of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia , or FARC.

“These bandits enter, do us harm, and then return to a foreign country, violating the sovereignty of brother nations,” outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said in a speech at community meeting Saturday.

The charges prompted Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez to break relations and order Colombian diplomats out of the country. Cross-border trade, already in decline from previous restrictions imposed by Chavez, had slowed to a standstill Saturday morning. There was no immediate response to Colombia’s call for monitors.

In a speech to union leaders Friday, the populist Chavez warned Colombia against attacking the rebels. An offensive, he said, would cause “100 years of tears.” But in a comment that was regarded as more conciliatory, he also told the insurgents to reconsider their armed struggle against the Colombian government.

The deterioration of relations comes as Colombia’s president-elect, Juan Manuel Santos, prepares to take office Aug. 7. Although he faced numerous attacks from Chavez when he was Uribe’s minister of defense, Santos has expressed a desire to normalize relations and made other conciliatory gestures.

Patrick Esteruelas, a Latin America specialist at Eurasia Group risk analysis firm in New York, said in a telephone interview that Colombia’s latest accusations may amount to “an early Christmas present” that may help Chavez appeal to “nationalist and hard-line voters” in September elections for the National Assembly. The Venezuelan economy is in trouble, and Chavez’s popularity is sinking with it.

Relations between the neighboring countries have been rocky since Uribe abruptly canceled the authorization he gave to Chavez in 2007 to help mediate the release of FARC hostages.

Allegations that Colombian guerrillas use Venezuela as a refuge predate Chavez’s government. Since the 1980s, rebels reportedly have fled there to escape Colombian military operations, aided by the rugged mountains and jungles along the lightly-patrolled border.

But Chavez’s declarations of sympathy for the rebels and his admiration for late FARC leader Manuel Marulanda raised suspicions that at the least he has been passive about the rebel presence. In a recent interview, a leading Western diplomat alleged that no fewer than three of the FARC’s seven-member secretariat were living in Venezuela.

Eurasia Group’s Esteruelas said Colombian exports to Venezuela could drop as low as $1 billion this year from a peak of $6 billion in 2008 as a result of the new restrictions imposed by Chavez.

“Previously the two leaders agreed to disagree, to not let ideological differences affect mutually beneficial trade and investment,” Esteruelas said. “But things changed when Uribe invited Chavez to act as mediator then pulled the plug. Chavez never forgave him for that.”