Venezuela's President threatens US oil cut over Colombia row

25 July 2010

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has threatened to halt oil exports to the US if his country is attacked by Colombia - a close US ally.

The threat comes amid an escalating dispute over allegations that Venezuela is harbouring Colombian rebels.

Mr Chavez broke all diplomatic ties with Colombia last week and put his army on high alert.

Venezuela is America's fifth biggest source of imported oil, supplying about a million barrels a day.

Mr Chavez said he had received intelligence that "the possibility of armed aggression against Venezuela from Colombia was higher than it had ever been".

"If there was any attack on Venezuela from Colombian territory or from anywhere else, promoted by the Yankee empire, we would suspend oil shipments to the US, even if we have to eat stones," he said.

"We would not send one more drop to US refineries." The Venezuelan leader also said he had cancelled a trip to Cuba to celebrate a revolutionary anniversary with his close ally, President Raul Castro, because of the danger of attack.


Detailed allegations

A dispute over whether Venezuela allows Colombian Farc and ELN rebels to operate from its territory has dogged ties between the two South American nations for the past eight years.

But relations hit a new low last week when Colombia presented detailed allegations, including maps, photographs and testimony from guerrilla deserters.

Venezuela vehemently denies the accusation, and Mr Chavez has accused Colombia of trying to create a pretext for US military intervention against him.

He has also accused Colombia's outgoing President Alvaro Uribe - who leaves office next month - of trying to prevent an improvement in relations with Venezuela under his successor, Juan Manuel Santos.

Mr Uribe - a close ally of the US - has made the fight against left-wing rebels the main priority of his presidency. In a newspaper interview published on Sunday, he said he could not understand why guerrilla leaders sheltering in Venezuela were not arrested.

"I leave office with the sadness that these terrorists still have the capacity to inflict damage from outside the country," he said. In 2008 Mr Uribe sent Colombian troops into neighbouring Ecuador to attack a rebel base, killing the Farc leader, Raul Reyes.

His decision to give US forces access to military bases inside Colombia has been another cause of concern for Venezuela. Venezuela is on high alert status along Columbia's boarder region.


US: Should Take Allegations Against Venezuela 'Very Seriously'

President Hugo Chavez broke off all relations with Colombia on Thursday, last week, after Bogota charged, in a presentation to the Organization of American States, that there are some 1,500 Colombian guerrillas in Venezuela in dozens of camps.

"Colombia's allegations need to be taken very seriously," the State Department said in response to a written query from AFP. "Venezuela has an obligation to Colombia and to the international
community to fully investigate this information and move to prevent the use of its sovereign territory by terrorist groups," the State Department wrote.

"It is the expectation of all members of the inter-American community that all countries fulfill that commitment," the statement read.

U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Thursday that Washington disapproved of Chavez's move. "I don't think that severing ties or communication is the proper way to achieve that end," Crowley said.