Colombia trying to “provoke” war says Chavez

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez accused his Colombian counterpart of wanting to provoke war with Venezuela in order to justify a U.S. intervention there. In remarks made today on his radio talk show, Chavez urged Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to “think closely about how far you can go” regarding a supposed invasion:

"I issue an alert to the continent, the Venezuelan people, the armed forces over the Colombian government's intention to provoke a war against us," Chavez said.

"This has been planned and (the war) would come by way of the (western) states of Zulia and Tachira. They've been playing for time and making their plans.

"It would be a war in which the paramilitaries would play a role of penetration and intelligence," Chavez said, allegedly referring to Colombia's right-wing paramilitary forces.

Chavez’ remarks come after days after media reports from the Wall Street Journal and Spain’s El Pais accused his government of deep ties with Colombia’s FARC guerillas. Chavez has denied the allegations made by those sources.

Image- MWC News (The president of Colombian and Venezuelan chat during a conference earlier this year)

Sources- The Latin Americanist, Reuters UK, Bloomberg, France24, AFP