In the latest violence in an often lawless region between the Andean neighbors, a gang of four men on motorbikes ambushed and shot dead the Venezuelan soldiers at a checkpoint in western Tachira state on Monday.
Venezuela blamed Colombian paramilitaries for the murders, ratcheting up the diplomatic feud between Chavez’s leftist government and the administration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who is Washington’s main ally in the region.
“Sadly, our two men were brutally murdered by groups operating in the frontier zone, trying to spread fear and create an atmosphere of insecurity,” local army head Franklin Marquez said. The pair were shot in the back in apparent revenge for a crackdown by security forces, he added.
Paramilitary gangs, originally set up to fight Colombian guerrillas, operate in the border area, as do rebels, and a host of criminal gangs trafficking gasoline and drugs.
Witnesses in the Venezuelan border town of San Antonio said dozens of soldiers with an armoured car and machine gun had taken over the road to the nearest Colombian locality, Cucuta.
While large queues of cars formed on both sides, hundreds of locals crossed by foot under a bridge, loaded with suitcases and bags of goods, Reuters witnesses said.
