President Alvaro Uribe

QUITO (Reuters) - Venezuela's government on Friday blasted Colombia's defense minister as a "crazy sniper" at a summit in Quito, where South American ministers agreed to sign a partial accord over security in the region. The remarks came at a time of heightened tensions between Colombia and Venezuela, two Andean neighbors caught up in a simmering diplomatic dispute that is raising the risk of border violence and damaging bilateral trade ties. Colombia had refused to send senior cabinet ministers to the UNASUR meeting of South American countries in Ecuador's capital, citing "offenses" the country has suffered during its feud with Venezuela. "Colombia's defense minister ... Read Full Story

CUCUTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Saturday ruled out any military retaliation against Venezuela after Venezuelan troops dynamited two cross-border footbridges. "The fellow republic of Venezuela will never hear any aggression from the people or the government of Colombia," Uribe said at an event in the border town of Cucuta. "We will never restrict our frontier to our Venezuelan brothers." Venezuela says its troops this week blew up two illegal footbridges that cross over the border because they had been used by drug traffickers and smugglers. Colombia criticized the action as an aggression and said it would denounce it before the ... Read Full Story

Venezuelan police captured a leader of a Colombia-linked paramilitary force, the interior minister announced Saturday amid sky-high military tensions between the South American neighbors. Magaly Janeth Moreno Vega was captured Thursday by Venezuelan police in Maracaibo near the countries' northern border, said Interior Minister Tareck El Aissami, describing the 39-year-old wanted by Interpol as the "paramilitary chief" of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). "She is nicknamed... 'The Pearl' within the AUC" and "handles extremely important information," El Aissami said. Bogota, however, promptly hailed her arrest, vowing to seek her extradition from Venezuela to be tried for various crimes in her native Colombia. ... Read Full Story

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia will not be provoked into armed conflict with Venezuela despite the neighboring country's aggressive rhetoric and its dynamiting of two cross-border pedestrian bridges, Colombia's defense minister said on Friday. "We will not be provoked. The insults bounce off us," Gabriel Silva told local radio a day after Venezuelan troops dynamited the two suspended wooden plank pathways connecting the countries. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez this month ordered his army to prepare for war after Colombia signed a military cooperation pact with Washington allowing U.S. troops increased access to its territory to run anti-narcotics surveillance flights. Chavez says the agreement could set ... Read Full Story

Twenty months after Colombian forces bombed a guerrilla encampment in Ecuador bringing the two countries to the verge of war, both capitals on Friday said they restored diplomatic ties. The governments announced the exchange of embassy envoys ahead of a self-imposed November 15 deadline, a key part of a "roadmap" to normalize ties. "As planned in the roadmap, we have agreed to appoint our charges d'affaires," Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez told Radio Caracol, speaking from Singapore. The move was described in Quito as "a new step toward normalization of diplomatic relations," a government statement said. Ties between the neighboring South American nations were ... Read Full Story