Chavez Allies May Meet on Threat From Colombia, Morales Says

By Helen Murphy and Jonathan J. Levin

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Latin American countries aligned with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may hold an emergency meeting after Chavez told his military and civil militias to prepare for an invasion by Colombia.

“It’s an obligation to defend the sovereignty of the Latin American people,” Bolivian President Evo Morales said today in Cochabamba, Bolivia, urging that the Alba bloc of nine Latin American countries meet to discuss the situation.

Chavez said yesterday that Colombia may be plotting to invade Venezuela and ordered his armed forces to prepare for an attack. The Venezuelan president, who didn’t provide any evidence of a Colombian plot, has been feuding with President Alvaro Uribe over his plan to allow the U.S. to use seven military bases for anti-drug operations.

Morales said the meeting would aim to advance military and security cooperation among Alba’s member countries, including Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua. The Bolivian president also repeated his proposal for a continent-wide referendum on the increased U.S. military presence in Colombia.

Relations between Venezuela and neighboring Colombia have deteriorated this year after Uribe accused Chavez of financing and supplying Colombian rebels. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said last week that he would try to bring Chavez and Uribe together later this month to defuse tensions.

‘Avoid a War’

“Generals of the armed forces, the best way to avoid a war is to prepare for one,” Chavez said yesterday on state television as he accused Colombia of handing over its sovereignty to the U.S. “Don’t make the mistake of attacking,” he warned Colombia, “Venezuela is willing to do anything.”

Colombia’s government has denied any intention of attacking Venezuela and says the U.S. accord is only to help combat drug trafficking and terrorism. The president’s office said it will file a complaint about Chavez’s comments with the Organization of American States and the United Nations Security Council.

Colombia called for a “frank” dialogue with Venezuela.

“Colombia hasn’t and won’t make a single gesture of war to the international community, and even less so to a brother country,” Uribe’s office said in a statement on the Foreign Ministry’s Web site. “The only thing we are interested in is overcoming the narco-terrorism” that has affected Colombians for many years.

Tensions

Venezuela remains open to discussing tensions with Colombia at the defense council of the Union of South American Nations, or in any other multilateral setting, the country’s foreign ministry said via an e-mailed statement.

The U.S. military accord is part of an effort to “strengthen and increase ties with countries in the region,” Robin Holzhauer, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, said by telephone yesterday. Plan Colombia, a U.S. assistance plan, has provided $6 billion in mostly military aid to Colombia since 2000.

Chavez’s comments shouldn’t be interpreted as a sign that war is imminent and may be designed to distract Venezuelans from domestic problems before elections scheduled for next year, said Adam Isacson, director at the Center for International Policy in Washington.

“It’s hard to imagine a real war scenario, but a border skirmish is conceivable,” Isacson said. “So much of this is defensive and domestic rhetoric.”

Electricity Shortage

Venezuela will impose conservation measures for water and electricity because the El Nino weather pattern has reduced rainfall, affecting hydroelectric stations and drinking-water reservoirs, Chavez said last month. Power disruptions have become more common in recent years as growing energy use outstripped expansion in the nation’s generation and transmission network. Inflation is running at 29 percent, the highest among 78 major economies tracked by Bloomberg.

Elections to choose 167 lawmakers in the National Assembly will be held Sept. 26. The government has a near-absolute majority in the legislative body.

“The stakes are high because Chavez stands a good chance of losing his rubber stamp in the legislature,” Isacson said.

Chavez ordered an increase of troops along the 2,000- kilometer border between Venezuela and Colombia last week and said he may declare a state of emergency after two officials from the National Guard were shot and killed by unidentified Colombians.

Tanks, Jets

Venezuela has purchased billions of dollars of tanks, fighter jets and helicopters from Russia since 2003. Chavez says the purchases are necessary to modernize the armed forces and to protect the country’s natural resources from a possible invasion from the U.S.

Venezuela, a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is the largest oil producer in Latin America.

Venezuelan Interior and Justice Minister Tarek El-Aissami said last month that officers from Colombia’s domestic intelligence agency are operating clandestinely in his country to destabilize the government.

Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said that the military deal with the U.S. will help “end drug-trafficking and terrorism in Colombia” during the signing ceremony in Bogota on Oct. 30.

Colombia is the source of 80 percent of the cocaine sold in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Chavez said in July that he’d stop importing goods from Colombia due to the U.S. military pact. The two countries are each other’s second-largest trading partners after the U.S.

Colombian exports to Venezuela plunged 50 percent in Seotember from a year earlier, according to data Colombia’s statistics institute.

Lebanon gets new national unity government

Line-up includes 15 ministers from Hariri's bloc, 10 from opposition, 5 appointed by president.

BEIRUT - Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri formed a government of national unity on Monday, ending more than four months of tough negotiations with his Hezbollah-led rivals.

The winning alliance headed by Hariri won 71 seats in the 128-member parliament in the election against 57 for the opposition led by Hezbollah.

The Hezbollah opposition had actually secured the majority (52%) of the votes in Lebanon, but could not secure a majority of Parliamentary seats (it won 45%) because of the nature of the sectarian government system in the country.

"Finally, a government of national unity is born," Hariri told reporters after a presidential decree announcing the new cabinet line-up was announced. "We have turned a new page and there is no turning back."

"I want to be honest from the start: this government can be a chance to renew faith in the state and its institutions ... or it can turn into a replay of our failures."

The new line-up includes 15 ministers from Hariri's bloc and 10 from the opposition.

The remaining five ministers were appointed by President Michel Sleiman, including the holders of the key interior and defence portfolios.

Hezbollah has two ministers in the new cabinet.

The share-out means that no party will have veto power in the new government and that Sleiman will play the role of arbiter.

"I know previous experience is not encouraging and I know Lebanon has suffered more than its share of tragic events," Hariri said, referring to the political upheavals that have shaken Lebanon in recent years.

"I don't want to make empty promises," he added. "My only promise is to work hard with all parties and to pave the way for renewed faith in Lebanon."

Among the key issues facing the new government are Lebanon's mountainous national debt which is projected to top 50 billion dollars this year and Hezbollah's weapons stockpile.

Israel waged a bloody 34-day war on Lebanon in the summer of 2006 after Hezbollah fighters seized two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid that aimed to free Lebanese soldiers from Israeli prisons. The bodies of the soldiers were returned in a prisoner swap.

The war claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.

Hezbollah, originally a resistance group formed to counter an Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, had forced the Israeli military out of Lebanon in 2000. Israel, however, continues to occupy the Lebanese Shabaa Farms.

Israeli flights over Lebanon occur on an almost daily basis and are in breach of UN Security Council resolution 1710, which in August 2006 ended the war.

Hariri, 39, the son of murdered former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, was asked to form a cabinet after his alliance won a general election in June.

But his efforts to form a new unity government with the opposition stumbled because of bickering between the two sides on the distribution of portfolios and the choice of ministers.

Among the major bones of contention was a demand by Christian leader Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah ally, to retain the sensitive telecommunications ministry.

Hariri initially rejected the demand but finally agreed to it in a bid to break the deadlock.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was eager to see the new government finalised before his departure for France later this week, Lebanese media reported.

Lebanon forms Cabinet with Hezbollah

BEIRUT — Prime Minister Saad Hariri formed a Cabinet on Monday that includes the militant group Hezbollah and its allies, ending a political deadlock that left the nation without a government for months and threatened to ignite violence. The 30-member Cabinet was unveiled after more than four months of tough bargaining with the Hezbollah-led coalition.

Navies of 2 Koreas exchange fire

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – The two Koreas briefly exchanged naval fire Tuesday along their disputed western sea border, with a North Korean ship suffering heavy damage before retreating, South Korean military officials said.

There were no South Korean casualties, the country's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, and it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties on the North Korean side. Each side blamed the other for violating the sea border.

"It's a regrettable incident," South Korean Commodore Lee Ki-sik told reporters in Seoul. "We are sternly protesting to North Korea and urging it to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents."

North Korea's military issued a statement blaming South Korea for the clash, saying its ships crossed into North Korean territory. North Korea demanded an apology, according to a statement carried on the official Korean Central News Agency.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who convened an emergency security meeting, ordered his defense minister to strengthen military readiness.

The clash — the first of its in kind in seven years — occurred as U.S. officials said President Barack Obama has decided to send a special envoy to Pyongyang for rare direct talks on the communist country's nuclear weapons program. No date has been set but it would be the first one-on-one talks since Obama took office in January. Obama is due in Seoul next week.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that a North Korean patrol boat crossed the disputed western sea border around 11:27 a.m. (0227 GMT), drawing warning shots from a South Korean navy vessel. The North Korean boat then opened fire and the South's ship returned fire before the North's vessel sailed back toward its waters, the statement said.

The clash occurred near the South-held island of Daecheong, about 120 nautical miles (220 kilometers) off the port city of Incheon, west of Seoul, the statement said.

The North Korean ship was seriously damaged in the skirmish, a Joint Chiefs of Staff officer said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

Lee, the commodore, said the shooting lasted for about two minutes and that the South Korean ship was lightly damaged.

South Korean military officials did not say whether they believed the crossing by the North Korean ship was deliberate. The two sides regularly accuse each other of straying into their respective territories.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, however, quoted Prime Minister Chung Un-chan as telling lawmakers that the clash was not intentional. "Today's skirmish was accidental," he said, without elaborating.

The two sides have fought deadly skirmishes along the western sea border in 1999 and 2002.

No South Korean sailors were killed in 1999, but six south Korean sailors died in 2002, according to the South Korean navy. It said exact North Korean causalities remain unclear.

The two Koreas have yet to agree on their sea border more than 50 years after the end of their 1950-53 civil war, which ended in an armistice and not a permanent peace treaty. Instead, they rely on a line that the then-commander of U.N. forces, which fought for the South, drew unilaterally at the end of the conflict.

North Korea last month accused South Korean warships of broaching its territory in waters off the west coast and warned of a clash in the zone, which is a rich crab fishing area.

The latest conflict comes after North Korea has reached out to Seoul and Washington following months of tension over its nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea launched a long-range rocket in April and carried out its second underground nuclear test in May. But it subsequently released South Korean and U.S. detainees, agreed to resume joint projects with South Korea and offered direct talks with Washington.

Two administration officials said Monday in Washington that Obama has decided, after months of deliberation, has decided to send a special envoy to Pyongyang for direct talks on nuclear issues.

Obama will send envoy Stephen Bosworth, although no date for his trip has been set, the officials said. The officials discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been publicly announced.

There were no signs of unusual tensions along the heavily fortified land border separating the two Koreas. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said that were no worrisome troop movements on the North Korean side of the land border.

At Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, an Associated Press photographer said the situation was calm. A group of Chinese tourists was visiting on the North Korean side.

The area is where officers from North Korea hold meetings with their counterparts from South Korea, the United States and other members of the United Nations command.