AP/2ND UPDATE/ 24 July/
Venezuela ended diplomatic ties with Colombia over public accusations from Bogota that it was providing a safe haven to1,500 leftist guerrillas. Now President Chavez warns that any attack could provoke war. "Imagine a war between Colombia and Venezuela. That would be something to cry over for a hundred years," Chavez said. "But you understand that if we are attacked, we aren't going to stay with our arms crossed."
The neighbors nearly went to war in 2008 over a Colombian military raid into Ecuador to destroy a cross-border rebel camp. At a OAS meeting last week, Colombian Ambassador Luis Alfonso Hoyos displayed photos, videos, witness testimony and maps of what he said were rebel camps inside Venezuela and challenged Venezuelan officials to let independent observers visit them. Neither Chavez nor his OAS ambassador directly responded to the demand that Venezuela let people visit the alleged camps run by groups that the U.S. and European governments label terrorist organizations.
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