Colombia’s tense relations with Venezuela have been a hot-button
issue in Colombia’s presidential race. This week, a dispute occurred in
the Organization of American States (OAS), with Colombia accusing
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of “intervention,” and Venezuela
responding that it is being pulled onto the Colombian campaign trail
against its will.
Chavez recently referred to Colombian presidential candidate Juan
Manuel Santos, the former defense minister who resigned last August, as
a “military threat to the region.”
The comment alluded to Colombia’s March 2008 bombing of a guerrilla
camp in Ecuador, and its October 2009 military accord that allowed the
U.S. to increase its troop presence and spy operations in the region
from seven Colombian bases. Venezuela responded by severing diplomatic
ties.
Chavez expressed his desire to “turn the page” and restore
diplomatic relations with Colombia, but said this will be “very
difficult, exceedingly difficult” and that bilateral commerce may be
severed if Santos is elected.
During an OAS conference in Washington, D.C., Colombian Foreign
Minister Jaime Bermudez expressed the Colombian government’s
“indignation in the face of any intervention in our affairs,” and
accused Venezuela of impeding the process of regional integration.
Later, OAS General Secretary Miguel Insulza commented, “When
officials in one country talk about the elections in another country it
is not a good practice... I don’t call that intervention, but it is a
bad practice.”
Venezuela’s ambassador to the OAS, Roy Chaderton, rejected the
critiques. “Venezuela rejects these attempts to artificially drag it
into the Colombian electoral competition and expresses its greatest
respect for the decision that the Colombian people make in the
elections on May 30,” he said.
Chaderton also criticized Insulza for speaking on matters that “are
not of his concern,” and noted the “coincidence” between Insulza’s
comments and those of the corporate, right-wing media in Colombia.
Chavez said he had the right to comment on the Colombian election,
since the candidates had commented about Venezuela. “Some candidates in
Colombia have based their campaigns on me. They should not meddle with
me, and if they do, I have the right to respond to them,” he said.
Chavez also clarified his position on the Colombian election. “Be it
from the left or the right, I do not have a preference for either of
them,” he said. “The one the Colombian people choose should win.”
In recent weeks the Colombian press has grilled both leading presidential candidates on relations with Venezuela.
Former Bogotá Mayor Antanas Mockus, the opposition candidate from
the liberal Green Party, said he would pursue “good relations” with
Venezuela and “recognize and deepen interdependencies,” but did not
specify whether he supports Chavez’s anti-imperialism or his push
toward 21st Century Socialism.
Both Santos and Mockus disapproved of Chavez’s comments on the
Colombian election, but Mockus doubted that the impact of Chavez’s
comments would be significant.
“I share with the general secretary of the OAS the perception that
the impact is not very great,” Mockus said. “However, the intervention
bothers me and annoys all Colombians. I think that Venezuelans would
not like it if the president of Colombia or of another neighboring
country, like President Lula [of Brazil] were to start to intervene, to
try to veto one of the candidates,” he said.
In early May, Santos said he is willing to “dialogue” with
Venezuela, and said he will “never fire on Venezuela and Ecuador,” an
apparent attempt to soften the fact that he ordered the March 2008
bombing in Ecuador and later accused Venezuela of financing the rebels.
The Ecuadoran Attorney General’s Office announced in April that it
will pursue Santos’s extradition after a district judge issued an
arrest warrant for Santos on the grounds that he ordered the bombing.
Venezuelan Analysis