[Peace-discuss] RE: Venezuela/Colombia relations

[Phil Stinard]

Interesting article, and I found the Xinhuanet article dated January 27, but 
it wasn't picked up by the Venezuelan press, and I can't find any 
verification for it in Spanish.  Over the weekend, the Chavez government 
said that the situation with Colombia had been resolved, and that they were 
ready to re-establish diplomatic relations, but there were no details on how 
the impasse had been resolved.  I have this from Radio Nacional de Venezuela 
from today.  In a nutshell, it says that Venezuela's ambassador to Colombia 
is returning to Colombia now that the diplomatic impasse over the Granda 
case has resolved.  Chavez and Uribe are meeting this Thursday, but the 
ambassador doesn't want to make any comments on that.  The article concludes 
with "After two weeks of tension, last Friday, the Colombian President and 
Foreign Ministry released two communiques that say the incident has been 
resolved, and they announced Uribe's trip to Venezuela to listen to Chavez 
and share reflections on the incident."  I'm personally mystified as to how 
the incident was resolved.

Regresó a Colombia embajador de Venezuela

El embajador de Venezuela en Colombia, Carlos Rodolfo Santiago, regresó este 
lunes a la capital neogranadina, luego que se solucionara el impasse 
diplomático originado por el caso Granda entre ambas naciones.
ABN
1 de Febrero de 2005, 11:55 AM

Bogotá, luego de ser llamado a consultas el pasado día 13, por el secuestro 
del guerrillero Rodrigo Granda en Caracas, en diciembre último.

En breves declaraciones a la emisora nacional RCN, al llegar a su residencia 
en el norte de esta capital, Santiago señaló: "estoy muy feliz de estar 
nuevamente aquí".

Tras indicar que no estaba autorizado a hablar sobre sus gestiones 
inmediatas, el embajador apuntó "vamos a esperar la reunión del jueves entre 
los presidentes de Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, y de Colombia, Álvaro Uribe, 
cuando todo debe estar por un cauce normal", citó Prensa Latina.

Santiago destacó que los asuntos pendientes entre los dos países están en 
manos de Uribe y Chávez, junto a los ministros de Relaciones Exteriores de 
ambos países vecinos.

En Caracas se trabaja con el mayor cariño, el mayor aprecio y la mayor 
fraternidad en la agenda de la entrevista que sostendrán los dos 
mandatarios, sostuvo el diplomático.

El pasado día 14, Venezuela decidió suspender sus relaciones económicas con 
Colombia al estimar que autoridades colombianas sobornaron a funcionarios 
venezolanos en el caso Granda, algo que consideró una violación a su 
soberanía nacional.

Tras dos semanas de fuertes tensiones, el viernes pasado, la Presidencia y 
la Cancillería colombianas emitieron dos comunicados en los que dan por 
zanjado el incidente y anuncian el viaje de Uribe a Venezuela para escuchar 
a Chávez y exponerle sus reflexiones.



>Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 08:46:30 -0600
>From: Alfred Kagan <akagan at uiuc.edu>
>Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: [sftalk] Fw: [anti-cap-Discussion] Fwd:
>	US	Preparing to Invade Venezuela Says Ambassador
>To: Peace Discuss <Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
>Message-ID: <19ceca62b819bf59c5f129830e185e37 at uiuc.edu>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
>
> >
> >
> > Subject: US Preparing to Invade Venezuela Says Ambassador
> >
> > US prepares invasion of Venezuela: Venezuelan ambassador
> > Xinhuanet | January 31 2005
> > The United States is preparing a future invasion of Venezuela to
> > control the petroleum of the South American country as it did in Iraq,
> > said Venezuela's acting ambassador to Paraguay, Elmer Nino.
> > Nino, cited Thursday by local Paraguayan daily ABC Color, said the
> > present diplomatic crisis between Venezuela and Colombia was created
> > by the United States as part of its future plans for an invasion.
> > The Venezuelan oil reserves have a strategic value as they will last
> > 350 years at the present exploitation level, the diplomat was quoted
> > as saying.
> > Venezuela is Latin America's second largest oil producer behind Mexico
> > and the principal oil exporter in the region.
> > Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez froze his country's diplomatic and
> > commercial ties with Colombia in early January to protest whathe
> > called Colombia's "kidnapping" of a rebel leader in Caracas, the
> > Venezuelan capital, which he considered as a violation of Venezuelan
> > national sovereignty.
> > The government of Colombia rejected Chavez's demand to make apologies
> > to end the dispute.
> > With respect to Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte's position on the
> > Caracas-Bogota crisis, the ambassador said it has been neutral.
> > --