SAN ANTONIO, Venezuela, (Reuters) – If South American neighbors Venezuela and Colombia are about to go to war, you would never guess it on the “Simon Bolivar” bridge.
Trade may be down, but the bustle of cars, motorbikes and people is still incessant — carrying Venezuelan gasoline one way, Colombian potatoes the other on the main crossing between the two nations, named for their shared independence hero.
In “Brotherhood Square” beside the border bridge, Colombians, Venezuelans and a few cows share a relaxed moment in the shade. Thousands of people, many with friends and family members on both sides, cross back and forth each day.
“Look around you. We live off them, they live off us. So all this talk of war is crazy,” said Janeth Morena, who runs a supermarket in the town of San Antonio on the Venezuelan side.
But below the hurly-burly of life on the border, there is deep anxiety over the accusations of spying, violent incidents and military movements that have increased friction between the ideologically opposed governments.
The long-running diplomatic dispute took a worrying turn at the weekend when President Hugo Chavez told his army “to prepare for war”. That caused uproar in Bogota, where the government is calling for international censure of Chavez.
The Venezuelan leader later expressed surprise at the furor, saying he was no warmonger but had to prepare his people against the risk caused by Colombia’s decision to increase U.S. access to its military bases.
The row between Washington’s strongest ally in the region, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, and its fiercest critic, Chavez, is more ingrained than earlier spats, analysts say.
Nowhere is the dispute’s impact felt greater than in the hot, hilly border country.
Despite still frenetic levels of activity, locals say commerce between San Antonio and Cucuta, the nearest town on the Colombian side, has actually dropped more than half in the last few weeks as a result of the political tensions.
The escalation in rhetoric was preceded by a string of violent incidents, including the shooting to death of two Venezuelan soldiers, in a region roamed by Colombian paramilitaries and rebels, and criminal gangs from both sides.
