Andean Group - 8 February 2005

On 28 January the governments of Colombia and Venezuela issued a joint statement that the worst crisis in years between their two countries was over. The statement should ensure that full bilateral relations are soon restored, but issues raised by the crisis are set to hang over their relationship.

The sovereignty row
The crisis ended when Colombia apologised for its conduct leading up to the arrest of Rodrigo Granda, the so-called foreign minister of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc). Granda was arrested in Colombia on 13 December, but only after he had been kidnapped in Caracas by members of the Venezuelan security services and smuggled across the border. The Venezuelan government claims Colombia paid one national guardsman US$350,000 to capture Granda.

Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez , condemned Colombia's actions as a flagrant violation of his country's sovereignty and severed diplomatic ties. In addition, Chávez put bilateral trade and investment projects on ice until Colombia apologised. The Venezuelan government also accused Colombia of being controlled by the US. Colombia's president, Alvaro Uribe, was reluctant to accept blame, however. His government had initially denied that Granda had been arrested outside Colombia, and even when it became obvious that Colombia had been lying, Uribe refused to apologise and instead railed against Venezuela for allowing Granda and a host of other senior rebels to cross unhindered through its land. By harbouring militants intent on attacking the Colombian government, Venezuela was itself violating Colombia's sovereignty, Uribe argued.

This rejoinder hardly justified kidnapping Granda, but this did not stop the Colombian government sending Venezuela a list of seven senior militants belonging not only to the Farc but also to the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) which it claimed were at large in Venezuela. Colombia's last defence - that Granda had been wanted by Interpol for over a year - was disproved, but still Uribe refused to apologise, even though the trade embargo quickly took its toll on western Colombia, leading to shortages of fuel and electricity in the region.

Foreign intervention
The Colombian government was offered a way out of this damaging battle of wills by its neighbours in the region. Peru and Brazil were quick to offer their services as mediators between Colombia and Venezuela, and Mexico also sought to get involved. The intervention of President Fidel Castro appears to have been decisive, however. Castro and Uribe make an unlikely pair, but the Cuban leader has been credited with persuading his Colombian counterpart to see reason.

The apology that followed was veiled, but it was an apology nonetheless. The Colombian government agreed to "look over the events which are public knowledge to make sure that, if they were inconvenient to Venezuela, they are not repeated". Chávez might have got what he wanted, but he nonetheless refused to restore full bilateral ties until Uribe had travelled to Caracas to meet him. Illness has thus far prevented Uribe from fulfilling the engagement, but it appears that the worst crisis between the two countries is over. The concern is, however, that the issue of US involvement in Colombia is not going to go away, and neither will Colombia's complaints about the ease with which rebels come and go across the border.