CARACAS (AFP) — Venezuela said Tuesday it was recalling its ambassador to Colombia for consultations following a diplomatic row between the two countries' leaders.
And firebrand Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lashed out again at his conservative Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe, calling him "a sad pawn of the (US) empire."
The Venezuelan foreign ministry said in a brief statement it was calling Ambassador Pavel Rondon back to Caracas "because of recent developments and in order to proceed with an exhaustive evaluation of bilateral relations."
The move came after Chavez and Uribe traded bitter verbal blows on Sunday.
Furious that Uribe dropped him as a mediator to secure the release of hostages held by the leftist rebels, Chavez said on Sunday he was putting bilateral relations Colombia in "a freezer."
"I don't trust anybody in Uribe's government," the leftist Venezuelan leader added.
Uribe, a strong US ally, shot back by claiming that Chavez, whose country sits atop South America's biggest oil reserves, wanted to "build an empire based on your budget."
Chavez hit back on Tuesday. "The empire is the one that has an expansionist project, and you are a servile instrument of the US empire in Latin America."
Uribe withdrew his support for the Venezuelan leader's mediation efforts with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) after Chavez ignored his demand not to speak directly with Colombian generals about the hostages.
Uribe alleged the Venezuelan president was not interested in peace "but rather in Colombia becoming the victim of a terrorist government by the FARC."
The Colombian government's peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo said Tuesday Bogota will now deal directly with the FARC in its efforts to get the hostages released.
Uribe has also accused Chavez of fomenting hate against Colombia in a bid to rally domestic support among voters.
Venezuelans vote on Sunday in a referendum over a controversial reform of the constitution that would significantly expand Chavez's powers and allow him to seek reelection as many times as he wants.
The row plunged relations between Colombia and Venezuela to their lowest level in years.
But Colombian Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo said Colombia's ambassador would not be called back from Caracas. He also accused the FARC of using Chavez to "present themselves ... as champions of democracy," while continuing to terrorize Colombia.
A bipartisan group of seven US senators on a tour of Latin America said in Asuncion that despite Chavez's insults to the United States and Colombia, they were still striving for regional harmony and called on Venezuela and Colombia to mend their ways.
Led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the lawmakers are to meet on Wednesday in Bogota with Uribe.
Venezuela and Colombia had already been at odds in 2005, when Caracas recalled its ambassador for a month after learning that Bogota had paid Venezuelan troops to secretly capture a top FARC leader.
The Colombian-Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce estimates the latest bilateral crisis could affect 2,000 companies that generate an estimated one million jobs.
Colombian exporters had forecast sales to Venezuela would reach 4.4 billion dollars this year, with imports from that country estimated at 1.3 billion dollars, setting a record high in bilateral trade.
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