Colombia and Venezuela’s stand-off delays South American progress

Once again a meeting between South American heads of state has descended into a tug-of-war over increasing tension on the Colombia/Venezuela border.

The 39th meeting of the Council of the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) was overshadowed by the dispute engulfing two South American neighbours.

The presidents of MERCOSUR’s four full member states, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay hoped to discuss advanced economic integration along with representatives from the rest of the continent. The two day summit in the Argentinian city of San Juan was instead clouded by crisis talks aimed at restoring dialogue between Colombia and Venezuela.

Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez rejected his invitation to Argentina at the last minute and was represented at the talks by his Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. When Maduro was invited to talk about his nation’s conflict with Colombia by his Paraguayan counterpart Hector Lacagnata he gave the stock response.

Maduro quoted a figure of 600,000 Colombians being forced into Venezuela over the last eight years as a result of their neighbour’s civil war. Chávez’s Foreign Minister went on to say “We are a country that has been victimised by the war in Colombia.”

The heads of state in attendance; Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Sebastián Piñera of Chile, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay and José Mujica of Uruguay attempted to discuss the original agenda drawn up for the talks.

The long term aim of the MERCOSUR bloc is to create a Latin American state similar to the European Union in its composition of member states. Ground was made on expansion of free trade agreements and electrical grid integration between states but still the dispute between the two countries in the north of the continent hung in the air.

The expansion of MERCOSUR is threatened by the thawing of relationships between Colombia and Venezuela. A Colombian delegation used a recent meeting of the trade bloc to reveal photographic evidence of Venezuela providing refuge to 87 FARC camps and 1,500 of their guerrillas. Venezuela’s response was to cut off all diplomatic dialogue with Colombia.

While Chávez’s government deny any ties with the terrorist organisation the renaming of a plaza in Caracas in honour of former FARC leader Manuel Marulanda was met with much consternation in Bogota.

Venezuela meanwhile sees Colombia’s connivance with the United States as at odds not only with their own policies but also with that of the long term aims of MERCOSUR. Chávez’s government have expressed displeasure at their neighbours allowing the U.S. Army access to seven military bases within Colombia’s borders. Venezuela, once the second largest importer of Colombian goods, is in the process of phasing out cross border trade with their neighbours.

With Chávez looking set to stay in power for the foreseeable future the members of MERCOSUR are hopeful that the impending change of presidency in Colombia will be a step on the road to reconciliation. For eight years Chávez and Colombian president Álvaro Uribe have been butting heads but next week sees the inauguration of Juan Manuel Santos in Bogota.

President elect Santos has already made some key appointments to his cabinet that suggest some deviation from the hard-line policies of his predecessor. However, it would be worth the members of MERCOSUR bearing in mind that Santos was Uribe’s Defence Minister during a time when Colombia flaunted international law by carrying out bombing raids in Ecuador.

While a declaration of war on their neighbours remains a real possibility from either nation the entire continent of South America seems set for more delays over the progressive union they are attempting to forge.

(Photo: Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (C) delivers a speech during the opening session of the MERCOSUR presidential summit in San Juan, Argentina on August 3, 2010. JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty Images)

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