Venezuela-Colombia Uneasy Neighbors - Prensa Latina

Venezuela-Colombia Uneasy Neighbors - Prensa Latina

Venezuela-Colombia Uneasy Neighbors

Caracas, Apr 21 (Prensa Latina) Criticism today over the use of Colombian territory to conspire against the Venezuelan government is straining relations, which are already damaged by conflict along a 2,000-kilometer border.

Colombia is considered Washington´s most strategic tool to attack Venezuela because of its proximity and the concentration of US troops in that nation.

Hundreds of demobilized Colombian paramilitaries have become smugglers, hired assassins, kidnappers and attackers and operate on both sides of the border.

Those groups are linked with the nearly 200 murders of campesinos and indigenous leaders in the latest years, ascribed to assassins hired by landowners opposing the agrarian reform.

Witnesses or victims of kidnappings frequently identify their captors as people with a Colombian accent.

Administrative Security Department (ASD) agents in that country were linked to the killing of fiscal Danilo Anderson, who was in charge of investigating participants in the April 2002 coup on President Hugo Chavez.

More recently, former ASD Computing director Rafael García revealed to the media the participation of that institution in a plan to kill Chavez.

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan Parliament has designed a special commission to inquire into the situation with 30 days to present a preliminary report to the plenary.