Colombia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday asked the Venezuelan government to clarify if it “recognizes, approves or tolerates movements or parties that support terrorism and condone organized crime” amid ongoing tensions between the two neighboring countries.
The Foreign Ministry released a statement in which it denounces the leftist Continental Bolivarian Movement (CBM), an international group of supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s policies, which it says expressed their support for the FARC and “praised its commanders Alfonso Cano and Manuel Marulanda.”
The Colombian government considers this support “an affront to democracy and human rights” and demands the Venezuelan government speak out about whether it “recognizes, approves or tolerates” groups like the CBM that according to Bogota support the FARC.
Relations between Bogota and Caracas are tense as Chavez accuses Colombia of exporting right-wing paramilitary violence to Venezuela to destabilize his leftist government, while Colombia on numerous occasions has accused Chavez of supporting left-wing guerrilla groups in Colombia that, financed by the drug trade and extortion, have been at war with the Colombian State since the 1960s.