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Venezuela deploys tanks and troops to border with Colombia
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Thu, Mar 06, 2008
The Straits Times
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CARACAS - VENEZUELA deployed tanks and its air and sea forces towards the Colombian border in its first major military mobilisation in a crisis with Colombia, the Opec nation's Defence Minister said yesterday.
The move escalates tensions in a dispute over a Colombian weekend raid inside another of its neighbours, Ecuador, to kill rebels. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the operation could spark a war in the Andean region.
While Ecuador and Venezuela had poured soldiers towards their borders with Colombia in recent days, there had previously been no sign of a noticeable movement of heavy firepower.
Responding to a Chavez order delivered on Sunday, Venezuela's military said it had started sending 10 tank battalions towards the border and had activated its air force and navy. Military analysts estimate such a mobilisation could include more than 200 tanks.
| Hundreds of troops were seen on Tuesday boarding buses and trucks at the Paramaracay base in the central city of Valencia, headed for the border.
Those battalions sent to the border region included approximately 9,000 men, said retired general Alberto Muller Rojas, a former top aide to Mr Chavez.
If necessary, Venezuela's military is 'ready to defend the sacred sovereignty of the homeland', Defence Minister General Gustavo Rangel Briceno said.
Colombia has said it will not deploy extra forces to its borders in response to its neighbours' mobilisation.
The crisis pits leftist allies Venezuela and Ecuador against Colombia, which receives billions of dollars in US military aid to fight drug traffickers and guerillas.
Ecuador and Venezuela have also cut diplomatic ties.
Governments around the world have called for the three Andean nations to avoid further provocation.
Despite Venezuela's move yesterday, Ecuador sounded a conciliatory note, offering Colombia a diplomatic way out of the crisis if it apologises and pledges not to make other raids.
'I hope in the short term relations can be restored,' Ecuadorian Vice-President Lenin Moreno told Colombian radio Caracol.
Led by diplomatic heavyweight Brazil, most Latin American governments have condemned Colombia for entering Ecuador to kill FARC guerillas and urged it to apologise.
REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
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