Tensions mounted between Venezuela and Colombia on Tuesday as Caracas accused Bogota of detaining four of its soldiers in international waters.
The four members of Venezuela’s national guard who were detained in Colombia on Saturday and released a day later were not on Colombian territory when they were taken, a Venezuelan national guard general said late on Monday.
“They were approached by Colombian military forces ... in the Meta River. The Meta River is part of international waters,” said Orlando Mijares, a general in the national guard and regional commander of the Venezuelan border state of Amazonas.
“This goes against a treaty on border demarcation and river navigation signed by the two governments, which is in force and mentions free navigation of the rivers that separate the two countries,” Mijares told state television VTV.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said on Saturday that the men were arrested on Colombian territory in Vichada, a department in eastern Colombia. They were soon returned to Venezuelan officials.
The spat comes as the countries exchange barbs over US plans to use military bases in Colombia and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s alleged support for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels who are fighting the Bogota government.
Chavez has warned his nation to ready itself “for combat” to defend from US attacks coming from Colombia.
For months Chavez has said that a military pact signed in October between Bogota and Washington could set the stage for a US invasion of Venezuela from Colombian territory. The US and Colombia dismiss that accusation, saying that their cooperation is aimed strictly at combating drug traffickers and Marxist insurgents within Colombia.
Colombia brought what it called threats of war from Venezuela to the UN Security Council last Wednesday.
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