Venezuela crisis summit suspended
Venezuela crisis summit suspended
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has been taken to hospital with an ear infection, causing him to put off a meeting with Venezuelan leaders.
Mr Uribe and President Hugo Chavez had hoped to end a diplomatic row between the two nations.
Colombian officials said Mr Uribe would consult doctors on Friday on whether to travel to Caracas later in the day.
Venezuela froze links with Colombia after it hired mercenaries to capture a rebel chief on Venezuelan soil.
Mr Chavez has said the dispute was one of the most serious in decades.
He says he regards the dispute as "practically over", but that any final conclusion will depend on their discussions which he expects to be "frank".
In late January, the Colombian leadership issued a statement assuring Venezuela the incident would not be repeated and saying that the matter had been resolved.
Severed ties
The dispute arose after Colombia admitted that it paid bounty hunters to capture a Colombian Marxist rebel leader in Caracas.
Rodrigo Granda, a commander in Colombia's largest left-wing rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), was kidnapped in Caracas in mid-December.
Venezuela - which blames the US for provoking the crisis - accused Colombia of violating its national sovereignty and demanded an apology.
It also severed both diplomatic and business ties - worth an estimated $1.7bn (£900m) last year.
A $200m (£106m) natural gas pipeline project between the two countries was one of the casualties of the dispute.
Oil-producing Venezuela is Colombia's second-largest export market.
Venezuela also withdrew its ambassador from the Colombian capital, Bogota - a gesture not reciprocated by Colombia.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4233145.stm
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has been taken to hospital with an ear infection, causing him to put off a meeting with Venezuelan leaders.
Mr Uribe and President Hugo Chavez had hoped to end a diplomatic row between the two nations.
Colombian officials said Mr Uribe would consult doctors on Friday on whether to travel to Caracas later in the day.
Venezuela froze links with Colombia after it hired mercenaries to capture a rebel chief on Venezuelan soil.
Mr Chavez has said the dispute was one of the most serious in decades.
He says he regards the dispute as "practically over", but that any final conclusion will depend on their discussions which he expects to be "frank".
In late January, the Colombian leadership issued a statement assuring Venezuela the incident would not be repeated and saying that the matter had been resolved.
Severed ties
The dispute arose after Colombia admitted that it paid bounty hunters to capture a Colombian Marxist rebel leader in Caracas.
Rodrigo Granda, a commander in Colombia's largest left-wing rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), was kidnapped in Caracas in mid-December.
Venezuela - which blames the US for provoking the crisis - accused Colombia of violating its national sovereignty and demanded an apology.
It also severed both diplomatic and business ties - worth an estimated $1.7bn (£900m) last year.
A $200m (£106m) natural gas pipeline project between the two countries was one of the casualties of the dispute.
Oil-producing Venezuela is Colombia's second-largest export market.
Venezuela also withdrew its ambassador from the Colombian capital, Bogota - a gesture not reciprocated by Colombia.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4233145.stm
posted by stebaldos at 3:35 PM
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