Colombia files OAS complaint over Chavez
Colombia filed a formal complaint Wednesday with the Organization of American States against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, accusing the leftist leader of meddling in its domestic affairs.
The OAS complaint came after Chavez attacked Colombia as a “narco-state,” ordered investigations of Colombian companies in Venezuela and urged his socialist party supporters to reach out to left-leaning Colombians and politicians.
Colombia’s ambassador to the OAS, Luis Hoyos, denounced what his government saw as an “interventionist plan” by Chavez, a Cuba ally who promotes socialist revolution as the counterweight to U.S. influence in Latin America.
“This project violates the fundamental principles of relations between states,” Hoyos said in an address to the OAS session in Washington.
Tensions are high between the Andean neighbors over a Colombian plan to allow the United States more access to its military bases.
Chavez sees the base plan as U.S. “imperialist” aggression and has taken economic measures against his neighbor.
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