news

Caracas, December 28 --- Four National Guard (GN) soldiers have been killed in a weekend ambush near the Colombian frontier while on a routine border patrol in Zulia State, some 370 miles western of Caracas. It was the third time in 10 days that Venezuelan troops have been killed in the region. More than 300 GN soldiers conducted a search along the 1,400-mile border with neighboring Colombia as military sources say they believe the shootings may be related to an earlier attack in Tachira State in which three more GN were killed.

While immediate suspicions are directed at cross-border criminal gangs linked to Colombia's flourishing narcotics trade, the perpetrators could have come from either the Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN) or the larger Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla groupings or equally from outlawed right-wing AUC paramilitaries who infest the dense tropical jungles and mountains along the border.

There have recently been border clashes between AUC paramilitaries and the GN after paramilitary killer squads refused to stop at a checkpoint after infiltrating Venezuelan territory. The Colombians are claiming that the conflict took place on the Colombian side of the border but Venezuela denies having troops crossed into Colombian territory.

The situation is exacerbated by US-backed Colombian disinformation that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frias is indirectly supporting Colombia's Marxist guerrillas.

Venezuela blames Colombia for not patrolling their own border badlands and for doing virtually nothing to stop the cocaine trade within its territory while allowing the Colombian civil conflict to encroach upon Venezuelan territory.

However, neither country wants smaller incidents to escalate into what could be a very much greater international conflict. However, there is increased hostility being shown by the Bogota government, which has basically given up control of some 30 percent of its own sovereign territory throughout a 40-year dispute with left-wing guerrillas.












Also in this section:
Panama News Briefs
Legislature leaves much undone
Looking back on 2003
Arrests in Costa Rican radio pundit's murder
On the campaign trail
Venezuelan soldiers killed in Colombian incursion

Back to top

Panama Information, Hotels of Panama - Executive Hotel
Panama Information, Real estate in Boquete - Valle Escondido
Panama Information, Real Estate in Las Cumbres - Villa Concordia
Panama Information - Online guide to information about Panama - www.panama-information.executivehotel- panama.com
Panama Tourism - Online info for the Tourist Panama - www.travel-to- panama.com
Panama Pictures - Collection of pictures of Panama - www.panama- pictures.com