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Colombia's Santos, Chavez seek to end dispute
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Colombia's Santos, Chavez seek to end dispute
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History of tensions between Venezuela and Colombia
9:51am EDT
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez addresses a meeting of United Socialist Party (PSUV) in Maracaibo August 7, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Miraflores Palace/Handout
By Patrick Markey
SANTA MARTA |
Tue Aug 10, 2010 9:51am EDT
SANTA MARTA Colombia (Reuters) - Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez meet on Tuesday in an attempt to end a diplomatic dispute that has stalled trade and fueled fears of violence.
Tensions between the Andean neighbors have run high for more than a year with socialist Chavez imposing what Colombia describes as a trade embargo, but the talks in the colonial city of Santa Marta could break the deadlock.
At the heart of the dispute are Bogota's charges that left-wing U.S. foe Chavez harbors Colombian guerrillas and Venezuelan complaints about Colombia's agreement to allow American troops more access to its military bases.
Those underlying issues and ideological differences will be difficult to resolve in the short term, but both leaders will benefit from any move to restore $7 billion a year in bilateral trade as they seek to spur economic recovery.
"We have moderate expectations, we're optimistic but moderately so," Colombia's Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin told local radio. "People have to see this as a first step, and not everything gets fixed right away. But the relations that are established are important."
Santos, a U.S.- and British-educated economist, has clashed before with Chavez, who says his home-spun socialist revolution in Venezuela is inspired by South American liberation hero Simon Bolivar.
Santa Marta, a port town on the Caribbean sea, was where Venezuelan-born Bolivar died after his long fight to free the region from Spanish rule. Chavez has met several Colombian leaders there in the past.
PRAGMATISM OVER POLITICS
Santos, who took office on Saturday, appears to be taking a more pragmatic approach to messy relations with Venezuela. Chavez would also benefit from improved trade ties to give his popularity a boost with September legislative elections just around the corner.
Venezuela would gain cheap food imports from Colombia as he tries to control high inflation and Colombia would restore some trade with its traditional No. 2 commercial partner.
"Deeper differences between the two governments, including over ideology and attitudes to the United States, will not simply disappear," said analyst Christian Voelkel with IHS Global Insights risk consultants.
"Traditionally high volatility of relations could gradually decrease."
News of the meeting and fresh possibilities that trade could be restored helped push up Colombia's peso currency in trading on Monday, the day after the talks were announced by the foreign ministers of both governments.
Colombia's long guerrilla conflict has often spilled over the Venezuelan border, where kidnappings and drug trafficking are common. Chavez complains that Colombia's military is not doing enough to secure the frontier.
But Chavez's ideological affinity with Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels has led Washington and Bogota to accuse him of supporting the guerrillas. The Venezuelan former paratrooper dismisses the charges as U.S.-backed propaganda.
Andean tensions have run high since 2008 when Colombian troops attacked a FARC rebel base hidden over the border in Ecuador. Both Quito and Caracas warned of war and sent troops to the frontiers before a regional summit defused tensions.
The most recent squabbling came after Colombia signed a deal to allow U.S. troops more access to its bases for anti-narcotics and counter-insurgency efforts. Chavez accused Bogota of working with Washington to undermine his government.
Chavez, who calls U.S. foes Cuba and Iran his allies, again broke off ties with Colombia last month after then-president Alvaro Uribe accused him of harboring more than 1,000 leftist Colombian FARC rebels on his territory.
(Additional reporting by Nelson Bocanegra in Bogota; editing by Anthony Boadle)
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