Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will not have any control over
actions taken by U.S. military from Colombian soil, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez said in an interview with several Colombian media.
According to the Venezuelan Head of State, Uribe had assured Chavez there would not be a new deal that would allow the U.S. to increase its military presence in Colombia and the announcement of the pending pact came as a surprise for all Latin American leaders.
“How good would it have been if Uribe had done this tour [visiting seven South American Presidents to explain about the U.S.-Colombian deal] before announcing the decision in such surprising manner,” Chavez told reporters of W Radio and newspaper El Tiempo.
The Venezuelan President told the reporters that, despite the return of the Venezuelan ambassador to Bogota, the diplomatic crisis continues.
“The problem fundamentally has a number of factors. The first is that the Uribe government continues to insist in what is a big lie. And I know the blame is not Colombia. The yankee empire is committed to demonize Venezuela, its government
and myself and in this is accompanied by the impere of the consular
bourgeouis … the Uribe administration lends itself to this absurd
accusation that we are providing weapons to Colombian guerrillas, which
is a lack of respect and an enormous blow to our governments’ efforts
to have normal, good relations,” Chavez told reporters of newspaper El
Tiempo and W Radio.
“The other element is the decision announced by the Uribe government to allow the United States to install seven bases. Even though they say they are not bases and that the soldiers will be invisible, for us this is a mayor threat,” Chavez added.
According to Chavez, Uribe is naive thinking that he would have any control over the bases. “The U.S. military personnel will have immunity. No judge in Colombia may prosecute them and I know of one case of rape. It is naive to think these planes will be limited to the territory of the bases. They will fly freely. Not even Colombia will control their routes, the schedules and the mission.The information will be secret and about Venezuela. They will study our weaknesses. They will… accuse me again of supporting the guerrillas. Everything will be more tense. It is part of a pattern of severe threats against Venezuela from Colombia with the participation of top politicians and military.”
Relations between Bogota and Caracas were frozen after the Uribe government accused Venezuela of providing Swedish-made rocket launchers to Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC. The Union of South American Nations, UNASUR, will discuss the crisis Monday, but without Colombia, that decided not to take part in the summit.