EFFORTS BY South American leaders to end the latest diplomatic crisis between Colombia and Venezuela have been complicated by a filing in the International Criminal Court against Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez for his support of Colombian guerrillas.
A lawyer acting for Álvaro Uribe, who handed over Colombia’s presidency to Juan Manuel Santos on Saturday, said he entered the petition on behalf of the victims of Colombia’s civil war on Mr Uribe’s last full day in office.
Last month Mr Uribe presented evidence which he said proved that the Venezuelan authorities allowed senior members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, as well as a smaller Colombian guerrilla group, to operate freely on their territory.
Mr Chávez dismissed the allegations and broke off remaining diplomatic ties with Bogotá, long strained by a series of quarrels with the right-wing Mr Uribe, with whom he has deep ideological differences.
In addition to the personal suit against Mr Chávez at the court in The Hague, Mr Uribe’s lawyer said he had also filed a complaint against the government in Caracas with the Organisation of American States.
The regional body prohibits members from supporting rebel groups in neighbouring countries.
Mr Uribe had adopted a harder line with Venezuela in the final weeks of his administration just as his successor was signalling to Caracas he wanted to improve ties.
After receiving the sash of office Mr Santos told crowds: “The word war is not in my dictionary when I think about Colombia’s relations with our neighbours.”
After talks with Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner, both of whom are leading regional mediation efforts, Mr Chávez signalled he was also willing to look for a means out of the diplomatic crisis. At a rally in Caracas this weekend, he told supporters he was “prepared to turn the page completely and look to the future”.
Colombia’s new president made no reference to his predecessor’s legal moves against Venezuela, who seems to have taken the action without consulting him. Analysts say however they could work to Mr Santos’s advantage.
“Colombia has evidence that there is free circulation of rebel groups in Venezuela,” said Marcela Prieto Botero, of the Institute of Political Sciences in Bogotá.
“This is clear and now Uribe has put this card clearly on the table, but he has assumed the political cost in doing so.
“Santos can now demand action from Venezuela about the rebel presence there without being stigmatised for having made the accusation.”