Pat Dollard

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(Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday severed relations with neighbor Colombia after Bogota presented evidence it said showed 1,500 Colombian leftist guerrillas were hiding in Venezuelan territory.

The left-wing Venezuelan leader called the Colombian accusations a U.S.-inspired “aggression” and said he was ordering “a maximum alert” on his country’s border with its Andean neighbor.

“We have no other choice but, out of dignity, to totally break our relations with our brother nation of Colombia,” Chavez said live on state television, as he hosted a visit by Argentine soccer idol Diego Maradona.

The two Andean neighbors who share a long, porous border have squabbled on and off for years, stoking fears of an eventual military confrontation between the two oil producers.

Chavez made the announcement after Colombia presented to the Organization of American States in Washington photos and maps it said showed 1,500 Colombian rebels were sheltering in a string of jungle and bush camps inside Venezuela.

He blamed the rift with Bogota on outgoing Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, whom he called “crazed”. He said the United States had incited Uribe to attack Venezuela.

HOSTILE RELATIONS

But he added he hoped that Colombia’s newly elected president, Juan Manuel Santos, who will take office on August 7, would help to bring relations back to normal.

Chavez last year suspended bilateral trade with Colombia to protest a deal by Bogota that allowed U.S. forces to use Colombian military bases for anti-drug operations.

The Venezuelan president, who has hostile relations with the United States, called this a direct threat to Venezuela.

At the OAS meeting in Washington, Colombian Ambassador Luis Alfonso Hoyos accused Chavez’s government of tolerating the rebels he said carried out killings, kidnappings and drug-trafficking on both sides of the frontier.

“The continent cannot allow this nightmare to spread,” Hoyos said. He demanded that Venezuela allow an international commission and journalists to inspect the 87 sites where he said Colombian rebels were sheltering on Venezuelan soil.

Venezuela’s ambassador rejected the Colombian presentation as a lie. “There is no evidence, no proof. These are photos taken I don’t know where,” Roy Chaderton said.

Socialist Chavez has often been at odds with the conservative Uribe, the United States’ top ally in the region.

COLOMBIA DENOUNCES REBEL “SUMMER CAMPS”

Chavez’s government has dismissed the latest Colombian accusations as “pathetic” and says they are aimed at derailing steps to repair bilateral ties before Santos takes office.

Hoyos showed a series of photos and videos of alleged Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, leaders and guerrillas relaxing, roasting pigs and playing a piano at camps he said were well inside Venezuela.

“Facts over recent weeks show that real risks are materializing due to the consolidated, active and growing presence of these terrorist groups in Venezuela,” Hoyos said.

He added the Venezuelan authorities “tolerate the presence of these groups, they don’t carry out actions against them.” Sometimes the rebels were even accompanied by members of Venezuela’s National Guard, Hoyos added.

FARC rebels carried out cross-border attacks from Venezuela as recently as June and July, Hoyos said as he showed photographs of civilian and military victims of these attacks.