Venezuela and Columbia

The big news in Venezuela today has been about the meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) called by Colombia, and Venezuela's severing of diplomatic relations following the Colombian ambassador's initial outlay of the alleged evidence regarding FARC bases in Venezuela.  The government media I have been following (mainly VTV and the website of the newspaper Correo del Orinoco) are claiming that the charges are completely trumped up, repeatedly referring to them as a "media circus".  Eva Golinger, writing in Venezuela Analysis, claims that the Venezuelan military today actually made trips to some of the coordinates provided by the Colombian government and found no evidence of FARC bases, instead happening upon empty fields and plantain farms.

I'm actually inclined to believe this line for lack of any mentions of solid evidence for the accusations in the non-Venezuelan media, although, to be honest, the coverage has been sparse and mainly concerned with the basics of the situation rather than supporting or refuting the claims (although this hasn't stopped the right-wing National Review Online from immediately seeing this as a clear, necessary casus belli).  My inner leftist cynic tells me that the general silence in the US/European media about Venezuela's counterarguments - that no specific time-stamps or evidence of specific location is given for any of the photographs or videos, and that the only source that has "verified" these is the Colombian government itself - is evidence that Colombia's evidence doesn't amount to much, although I will be careful not to make too strong a claim one way or another until more concrete facts arise (or continue not to).

That being said, the rhetoric seems to be rather heated on both sides, with Venezuela's "media circus" claims and jabs at Uribe as a "mafioso" on one side and the Colombian ambassador's rather undiplomatic manner of laying out the accusations on the other.  Part of me thinks it might have been an overreaction on the Venezuelan government's part to increase the alert level along the border and to drum up the possibility of Colombia escalating this into a direct attack, but then again the 2008 Colombian attacks in Ecuadorian territory on similar allegations of harboring FARC camps do set something of a precedent for that line of thought.  Thankfully, most sources seem to be saying that direct conflict is unlikely and various regional actors such as Brazil, Ecuador, and UNASUR are making attempts at diplomatic mediation (see, for instance, the Reuters UK report).

Some more links that I'll keep updating as I find them (I'll put a (S) in front of Spanish-language links):

- http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/07/22/venezuela.colombia/#fbid=TCFKcsiqDn5

- http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/07/22/colombia.venezuela.oas/#fbid=TCFKcsiqDn5

- (S) http://www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve/multipolaridad/chaderton-insto-a-su-homologo-colombiano-presencia-una-comision-internacional-para-observar-operaciones-siete-bases-militares-ee-uu-colombia/