WAR, LATIN AMERICA STYLE

The leftist presidents of Venezuela and Ecuador recalled ambassadors from Bogota and began moving tanks and troops to reinforce their borders with Colombia.

Relations have clearly hit a new low between President Alvaro Uribe and his leftist neighbors. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela warned that Colombia and its U.S. military backers may trigger "war in South America" with raids like the one that killed a key leftist rebel commander across the border in Ecuador.


Ecuador's President Rafael Correa called Colombia's "a foul and lying government that doesn't want peace."

But there is little appetite for armed conflict in the region despite Chavez's recent purchases of $3 billion in Russian arms, including 53 military helicopters, 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles and 24 SU-30 Sukhoi fighter jets.


Too many people depend on cross-border trade worth $5 billion a year, most of it Colombian exports sorely needed by Venezuelans already suffering milk and meat shortages. Ecuador depends on some $1.8 billion in trade with Colombia.

And militarily, Colombia has become a formidable foe, thanks in large part to $5 billion in aid from Washington since 2000, are U.S. military advisers are throughout Colombia's military.

Chavez's critics say his saber-rattling is intended to deflect attention from mounting domestic woes.

Chavez's cause also wasn't helped by Colombia's discovery of what it described as damaging documents in three laptop computers seized at the jungle camp of Raul Reyes, the slain spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

According to Colombia's national police director, Gen. Oscar Naranjo, the seized files are "tremendously revelatory" and are being examined with the help of U.S. experts.

One document suggests Venezuela gave the rebels $300 million, while another suggests the rebels were shopping for 50 kilos of uranium.

The documents also show President Rafael Correa has sought to deepen ties with the rebels.

Correa called the Colombian charges an insult and broke diplomatic relations with Bogota.

Venezuela's embassy and consulate in Bogota were closed, Latin American presidents pleaded for reconciliation and offered to mediate, and an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States was called for Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

Ecuador did acknowledge that its internal security minister met with Reyes to discuss helping free hostages.

There were some signs of military mobilization on Monday.

Ecuadorean soldiers were helicoptered to their jungle frontier, and Venezuelan troops turned away private vehicles with Colombian plates at least one border crossing. Some Venezuelan tanks were trucked to the border.

But there was relative calm on the ground. Colombia's defense minister, Juan Manuel Santos, said no extraordinary military moves were planned, and vowed not to be drawn into a conflict with Chavez.

South America hasn't seen a shooting war since Peru and Ecuador fought for a month in 1995 for long-disputed border valley, leaving about 80 soldiers dead.

Colombia's borders with Ecuador and Venezuela are rugged and porous, crossed with ease by FARC guerrillas, who have been at war with successive Bogota governments for more than four decades.

Colombia has long complained that Ecuador and Venezuela have done little to confront the issue. According to rebel deserters recently interviewed by the AP, Venezuela allows FARC fighters to get rest, medical attention and process cocaine for unhindered export to the United States and Europe.

The rebel presence has made many Venezuelans who live near the border uneasy.

The Colombian commando raid on Saturday that killed Raul Reyes infuriated Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and his ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Chavez has called Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe a "mob boss" and a "liar."

The Venezuelan foreign ministry later announced its decision in a statement, saying it was acting "in defense of the sovereignty of the fatherland and the dignity of the Venezuelan people."

It said the government "has decided to order the immediate expulsion... of the ambassador of the Republic of Colombia in Venezuela, and the diplomatic personnel of the Colombian Embassy in Caracas."

Fidel Castro, long leader of Cuba, blamed the U.S. for bringing Colombia to the brink of a military clash with neighboring Venezuela and Ecuador, writing on Monday that "genocidal plans of the Yankee empire" created tensions between the South American nations. "We can plainly hear the trumpets of war to the south of our continent as a consequence of genocidal plans of the Yankee empire," Castro wrote in an essay published in the Communist Party daily Granma.