Venezuela's Chavez Closes Embassy In Ecuador, Sends Troops To Border

Linda Young - AHN Editor

Caracas, Venezuela (AHN) - Venezuela President Hugo Chavez has ordered his country's embassy in Columbia closed and sent troops to the border in an apparent reaction to an operation by Columbia in Ecuador that resulted in the killing of a top rebel leader. Chavez had said that Columbia violated Ecuador's sovereignty and warned that if it pursued FARC rebels in Venezuela that he would consider it an act of war, according to reports.

Columbian forces reportedly killed the second-in-command of the FARC, which is a Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

It was a joint operation between Colombian air forces that attacked a FARC camp from the Colombian side and Colombia's national police. It resulted in the death of Luis Edgar Devia Silva, known as "Raul Reyes," along with 16 others.

But Chavez reportedly condemned the operation, saying it was murder not combat because the men were killed while they slept in their camp in Ecuador.