In an interview with Caracol Radio Tuesday, a national business leader said Colombia’s private sector finds it “notoriously strange” that the U.S. government has so far declined to enter the latest diplomatic fray with neighboring Venezuela.
In fact, Luis Carlos Villegas, chairman of the National Industrial Association, said U.S. silence on the diplomatic crisis actually “thunders across Colombia,” and it is heard loudly across the whole region.
“Indeed the Colombian private sector finds the notorious silence of the U.S. regarding the controversy with Venezuela strange,” he said.
“It is not an equal balance for the United States to react to Venezuelan agreesion toward Colombia with prudent silence.”
Relations between Colombia and Venezuela Deteriorated rapidly after Colombia announced a new military pact with the United States, Allowing the Americans to use military bases and Civilian airports for antiterrorism and counternarcotics operations.
Violence has escalated along the border between Colombia and Venezuela, and President Hugo Chavez recently threatened to move troops to the border and to prepare his army for war.