SANTA MARTA: The presidents of Colombia and Venezuela agreed to restore severed diplomatic ties on Tuesday, appearing to iron out many of the bitter disagreements that have separated the two countries in recent years.
Conservative Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, in office for a mere three days, held a private summit with leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta for what he said would be "frank and direct" talks.
Ties between the neighbors were severed for 19 days over charges by former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe that Venezuela was harboring 1,500 guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN).
After the summit, Chavez said he came to "turn the page" on relations with Bogota -- and said unequivocally that he does not support Colombian guerrillas.
"The government I lead does not support and will not support guerrilla groups. That is an outrage," Chavez told reporters.
Chavez also said that Colombia has "sovereignty" when it comes to a controversial military agreement with the United States that gives the US military access to seven Colombian military bases.
The deal was intended to boost anti-drug trafficking efforts but prompted a furious reaction from Caracas, which froze ties with Bogota in July 2009 over the deal.
"I`ve always said that Colombia, like Venezuela, has the sovereignty to establish agreements with any country in the world," Chavez said.
"The only thing is that none of those agreements should affect the sovereignty of their neighbor or become a threat. We talked about that," he said.
"The results of these talks have been very positive," said Santos, adding that both countries will exchange ambassadors "as soon as possible."
Colombia and Venezuela agreed to "relaunch bilateral relations and reestablish diplomatic ties... based on transparent and direct dialogue," a joint statement from the presidents said.
Chavez also said that his self-styled Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela "does not constitute any threat for Colombia -- on the contrary, it is in Colombia`s interest to have a solid Venezuela."
The governments agreed on five working committees to look at issues such as improving trade, investments in border communities and security.
The meeting was held in the house where Simon Bolivar, a South American independence hero and Chavez`s idol, died in 1830.
Both men invoked Bolivar several times as their inspiration.
Since Tuesday was Santos`s birthday, Chavez brought a gift -- a biography of Bolivar by a Venezuelan author. He also gave Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin three red roses.
Relations between the mercurial Chavez and Santos -- for years Uribe`s defense minister -- have been anything but rosy in recent years.
Chavez has called Santos, a former Colombia defense minister, a "warmonger," "crazy" and a "pupil of the yankee far right."
Santos, meanwhile, has claimed Chavez was "inventing foreign threats, an old Fidel (Castro) tactic" and accused him of supporting FARC guerrillas.
After taking office, Santos moved quickly to set a new course with Venezuela, distancing himself from Uribe`s confrontational stance.
Relations between Colombia and Venezuela had been strained as far back as November 2007, when Chavez severed ties after Uribe stopped using him as a mediator in an attempt to coax FARC rebels to release prisoners.
Ties were strained again when Colombian forces crossed into Ecuador to attack a jungle FARC camp in March 2008, and later in 2009 over the US use of Colombian bases.
Trade between the South American neighbors -- six billion dollars a year in 2008 -- fell during each dispute, hurting economies on both sides of their 2,000 kilometer (1,200 mile border) border.
Venezuela also has a debt of some 1.5 billion dollars to Colombian exporters, according to the Colombian-Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce.
But on Tuesday, the disagreements seemed to belong to the past.
"President Chavez reiterated that he will not allow the presence of armed groups on his territory. I believe this is an important step," said Santos.
BDST:9:05 HRS, August 11, 2010
