Uribe, Chavez Trade Barbs in ‘Vehement’ Clash at Mexico Summit
February 23, 2010, 01:37 PM EST
By Alexander Cuadros and Jens Erik Gould
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe spoke “vehemently” to his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, during lunch at a summit yesterday in Mexico, Colombian and Mexican officials said.
Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez, responding to reports that Chavez told Uribe to “go to hell” after the Colombian president called him a “coward” and told him to “be a man,” said the discussions reached a “critical” point.
“The president told me he had spoken very vehemently,” Bermudez told Bogota-based Caracol Radio today.
During the closed-door lunch, Chavez accused Uribe of planning to assassinate him after Uribe said Venezuela had imposed a trade embargo on Colombia, Agence France-Presse reported, citing a Colombian diplomat it didn’t identify. The presidents of Mexico and Cuba, Felipe Calderon and Raul Castro, intervened to calm tensions on both sides, news agency EFE reported.
Mexican presidential spokesman Maximiliano Cortazar confirmed to reporters yesterday that the altercation took place.
Chavez in July pledged to do away with imports from his Andean neighbor in response to a deal to allow the U.S. greater access to Colombian military bases to help fight drug trafficking and domestic terrorism. Chavez has said the agreement sets the stage for the U.S. to invade Venezuela.
Colombian exports to Venezuela, traditionally its second- biggest trading partner, dropped 34 percent last year, according to Colombia’s statistics agency.
Leaders at the summit of Latin American and Caribbean nations in Cancun are working toward an agreement between the two countries, Calderon told reporters last night.
“The countries agreed to talk about their differences through fruitful dialogue, and they committed to building the conditions that make this possible with the support of a group of countries that are friends of Venezuela and Colombia,” Calderon said.
The two South American neighbors have agreed not to make any more “offensive” statements as they work to solve their disputes, Bermudez said.
