Venezuela rejects Colombian Military incursion of its territory (readable version) UPDATED

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Caracas, Venezuela, 17 May, 2008. Today, the Venezuelan Minster of Foreign Affairs published a public communiqué  to reject the recent incursion of a Colombian military comando into its territory. the 60 armed military men entered 800 meters inside the Venezuelan territory at Apure state- South West part of the country. In order to  avoid confrontation, the military Colombian comando was asked by Venezuelan authorities to return to the other side of the frontier.

The Venezuelan government rejected the Colombian military incursion and recalled International Law provisions on the inviolability of a State territory. This event adds to the already strained bilateral relations between <?xml:namespace prefix = u1 /><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Caracas and Bogotá. After the INTERPOL forensic report on the FARC laptop was unveiled in Bogotá, President Chavez declared that the bilateral relations were under revision again. Furthermore, there were acrimonious exchanges against Colombian President Alvaro Uribe during the just concluded LATAC-EU Summit in Lima, Peru. Both Presidents of Ecuador and Venezuela disdained the seriousness of Colombian allegations of their links with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Oddly, Pro Government journalist and former Vice President José Vicente Rangel envisaged this incursion in the last few days. The Colombian Minister of Defense, Jose Manuel Santos, is a rather known enemy of Venezuela. His family owns a major Colombian newspaper with links to Venezuelan opposition news network Globovison.  

In a escalating response, Colombia announced it had confiscated arms bearing the Venezuelan flag and army emblem. Colombian authorites stated they found 293 AK 47 at Santander near the Venezuelan frontier. Apparently they seem to belong to a notorious drug trafficker Daniel Rendón Herrera. However, the timing of this "finding" and previous US concerns over the arm policies and military build up of Venezuela seem to suggest a war propaganda tactics. According to Prinside, Colombia and US had expressed concerns the Venezuelan arms would end up in drug traffickers and FARC members.

More news to come

Sources: VTV, Globovion, Unionradio, El Universal,  RNV, El Nacional, El Comercio, Prinside, Vanguardia Liberal,  El Tiempo, Caracol, RCN, Telesur, YVKE,

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