Diplomatic relations with Bogota will remain frozen while Venezuela investigates the alleged case of Colombian espionage on Venezuelan soil, the Venezuelan President of the Committee on Foreign Policy said Monday.
The case will be “forwarded to the Committee on Domestic Policy to discuss the legal aspects, because the Colombian government has violated international law,” Venezuelan official Roy Daza told El Universal.
Daza added that there would also be a debate about the issue in Venezuelan Congress, in which the ongoing status of relations with the Colombian government would be discussed.
Venezuelan officials last week arrested two Colombians that they believe to be spies of DAS, Colombia’s intelligence agency.
“The Colombian Foreign Ministry acknowledges that the arrested men were members of the Administrative Department of Security (DAS), the Colombian security agency. They also admitted that the group was acting in Venezuela,” Daza told El Universal.
However Colombia denied the two men are DAS officials. DAS Director Felipe Muñoz said the identities of the alleged spies had been investigated and both men were found to have previous convictions.
El Universal put to Daza that the Colombian agency had denied that the arrested men worked for them.
“The Minister told us that we have their statements, names, carnet numbers and the time they have been working for the Colombian intelligence agency” Daza replied.
Relations between Colombia and Venezuela were frozen by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in July due to an agreement between Bogota and Washington regarding the use of seven Colombian military bases by U.S. troops.
