Colombia’s main social democratic party, Polo Democratico, wants to
meet with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Ecuadorean
counterpart Rafael Correa to find a way out of the diplomatic crisis
between Colombia and its leftist neighbors.
The Board of directors of opposition party Polo Democratico sent a letter to Caracas requesting a meeting with Chavez and Correa.
Polo leader Jaime Dussan confirmed the mediation attempts to newspaper El Espectador and is convinced members of his party will be allowed to meet Chavez. “The coming hours we will make contact and certainly we can meet Wednesday evening,” the social democrat said.
According to Polo Democratico, the current diplomatic crisis is inconvenient of the people of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, mostly because of the expected deterioration of trade between the neighbors.
Venezuela and Ecuador are both fierce opponents of a pending military pact between Colombia and the United States that will allow the latter to use Colombian army bases for counternarcotics operations in the region. Colombia accuses Venezuela of having sold rocket launchers to the FARC and says Correa received financial support from the rebels in his 2006 presidential campaign. Both Venezuela and Ecuador broke off diplomatic contact. Venezuela threatens to suspend all trade with Colombia.