Friday November 13, 2009

INTERVIEW - Venezuela would be "mad" to fight Colombia

By Andrew Cawthorne

SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez is stirring trouble with Colombia to disguise domestic failures and Venezuela would be "mad" to enter a conflict with its neighbor, a prominent opposition leader said.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is seen in Portuguesa, about 350 km west of Caracas November 8, 2009. Chavez is stirring trouble with Colombia to disguise domestic failures and Venezuela would be "mad" to enter a conflict with its neighbor, a prominent opposition leader said. (REUTERS/Miraflores Palace/Handout)

Cesar Perez Vivas is the governor of Tachira, one of just five Venezuelan states in opposition hands. It has a chaotic border frequented by paramilitary and guerrilla fighters from Colombia and has been at the heart of recent tensions between Venezuela and Colombia.

Perez urged Latin American diplomatic heavyweights like Brazil, Chile and Mexico to step in and mediate between Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

"Provoking a war ... would be really mad," Perez told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday. "Friendly nations must do their best to bring the two governments together."

The Andean neighbors are at odds over a Colombian decision to allow U.S. troops more access to its military bases.

Chavez, a left-wing firebrand who has cast himself as the region's successor to Cuba's Fidel Castro, says that could be a precursor to an invasion of Venezuela. But Uribe, a close U.S. ally, says the move is purely to fight drugs and rebels.

Perez, a 52-year-old lawyer elected governor of the western border state of Tachira last year, said Chavez would serve his people better attending to deteriorating services and rising crime rather than stoking disputes.

One of the most visible faces of the opposition, Perez has been a main target of Chavez's anger since former presidential candidate Manuel Rosales left the country this year.

Chavez accuses Perez of links to Colombian right-wing paramilitary group and some analysts say an order to send troops to Tachira's border last week is partly aimed at destabilizing the governor.

Perez said the Venezuelan leader's recent controversial exhortation to his army to "prepare for war" was a political smoke screen.

"He is obviously trying to distract attention from the immense failure of his government after 10 years in power," Perez said at his home in San Cristobal, capital of Tachira.

"In Venezuela today, there is neither electricity nor water on a permanent basis. The crime figures are battering us all. The country has gone backward enormously in 10 years."

Several Venezuelan opposition leaders are living abroad, jailed or under investigation. Perez denied links to paramilitaries, saying left-wing rebels were also present in Tachira with the connivance of the Chavez government.

"The president has begun a dirty war against me because I committed a big crime: winning the Tachira election," he said.

Some 5,000 people have lost jobs in Tachira in the last five months due to Venezuela's blocking of trade with Colombia and the number may reach 20,000 if the crisis drags on, Perez said. He accused the government of also cutting trade off from Tachira for political motives.

"It's a sort of punishment by the national government for the people of Tachira because they have not submitted to the leader's ways and to his 21st century socialism."

(Editing by Kieran Murray)

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