Bush backs Colombia over Venezuela "provocation"
By Patrick Markey
BOGOTA (Reuters) - President George W. Bush backed Colombia on Tuesday in an escalating Andean crisis as Venezuela moved troops to its border and Colombia accused President Hugo Chavez of genocide for sponsoring rebels.
Chavez, who calls Bush "Mr. Danger," has warned war could break out after Colombia bombed inside another neighbor, Ecuador, to kill a leading leftist FARC guerrilla..........
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNe...edName=topNews
Ecuador to defend itself if no Colombia apology
BRASILIA (Reuters) - President Rafael Correa said on Tuesday that Ecuador would defend itself if Colombia did not apologize for an attack on rebels in its country and if the international community did not condemn it.
"The aggressor has to apologize and the international community condemn him. If not we will have to defend ourselves with our own means," Correa told journalists in the capital Brasilia......
http://www.reuters.com/article/world...Name=worldNews
Fidel Castro wades into South American fray
HAVANA (Reuters) - Former Cuban President Fidel Castro waded into the growing dispute between Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela on Tuesday, backing Ecuador but aiming his fire mainly at arch-enemy the United States.....
http://www.reuters.com/article/world...45185320080304
Colombia says FARC wanted to make radioactive bomb
GENEVA (Reuters) - Colombia said on Tuesday that FARC rebels had been planning to make a "dirty bomb" with radioactive material, threatening the entire Latin American region.
The charges by Vice-President Francisco Santos, at the United Nations-sponsored Conference on Disarmament, marked a dramatic turn in a regional crisis that has seen Venezuela and Ecuador cut diplomatic ties with Colombia......
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNe...27449820080304
Colombia a Flashpoint in Chávez Feud With U.S.
CARACAS,
Venezuela — In the four days since Colombian forces crossed into
Ecuador and killed a guerrilla leader taking refuge there, tensions between
Colombia — Washington’s top regional ally — and its leftist neighbors have erupted, highlighting the fact that Colombia and its policies are increasingly viewed here as American proxies.....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/wo...rssnyt&emc=rss
Venezuelan troops to Colombian border
CUCUTA, Colombia - Venezuela and Ecuador reinforced their borders with Colombia on Tuesday as the three nations traded increasingly bitter accusations over Colombia's cross-border strike on a leftist guerrilla base in Ecuador.
Rejecting a Colombian apology as insufficient, Ecuador sought international condemnation of the attack during an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States, convened in Washington to help defuse one of South America's most volatile crises in years. Venezuela's justice minister declared that war "has already begun.".....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23466312/
Colombian rebels find haven in Venezuela
EL CRUCE, Venezuela - Leftist rebels fighting Colombia's U.S.-backed military have increasingly found refuge in Venezuela, where they get weapons, food, medical treatment and a smuggling route for the cocaine that keeps them afloat.
Former rebels, local citizens and Colombian officials told The Associated Press that hundreds or even thousands of Colombian insurgents are in Venezuela at any given time...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23337587/
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