BOGOTA (Reuters) – A leading Colombian presidential candidate yesterday accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of meddling in the nation’s May election, the latest flare-up in the Andean neighbours’ tense feud.
Juan Manuel Santos, an ex-defense minister in President Alvaro Uribe’s government and the favorite to succeed him, complained that Venezuela’s leftist leader singled him out by calling him a threat to the region in a speech in Caracas.
The exchange began Sunday when Santos refused to say in an election debate whether he would bomb rebel camps outside Colombia but defended a 2008 attack on a FARC camp in Ecuador that triggered a regional crisis and criticism from Chavez.
The Venezuelan leader responded on Monday when he told a summit of leftist leaders that Santos was a threat “to all of us” and slammed Colombia’s close ties with the United States.
“Other candidates (at the debate) did say they would bomb terrorist camps in other countries,” Santos told reporters in Bogota. “But President Chavez came after me, which shows that he clearly wants to interfere in the elections.”
Venezuela and Colombia are locked in a trade and diplomatic quarrel over Bogota’s decision to allow US troops more access to its military bases to counter FARC rebels and cocaine traffickers.
Chavez, a strong US foe, calls the plan an aggression against his OPEC-member nation.
The dispute has battered trade between the two countries, with Chavez ordering a halt on Colombian imports. Colombia says the trade conflict could trim around one percent off its economic growth this year.
Santos, the son of a wealthy Bogota family, has promised to maintain Uribe’s tough line with leftist guerrillas fighting a four-decade-old war on the state if he wins the election, and says he is like “oil and water” with Chavez.
