President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela announced on Venezuelan TV that Venezuela is withdrawing its ambassador from neighboring Colombia, freezing relations including halting trade deals with Colombia.

The announcement came a day after the Colombia government said weapons bought by Venezuela from Sweden in the 1980s had ended up with Colombian guerrillas.

Mr Chavez denied this and accused Colombia of acting “irresponsibly”.

What’s the U.S. got to do with it? According to Chavez (and many others), plenty.

President Chavez has always accused the Uribe led Colombian government of playing the U.S.’s colonized Latin American assistant. Colombia has allowed the U.S. access to the region through programs like “Plan Colombia” , which claim to be efforts against drug traffickers and terrorists, but have also yielded numerous complaints of human rights violations. The relationship between the U.S. and Colombia is about to get more complicated.

The BBC’s Will Grant in Caracas said the dispute between the two neighbours comes as Colombia prepares to allow the US to use three military bases on its soil, a move which has angered Venezuela.

Colombia says the accord will give the US military access to air bases to gather intelligence and support operations against drugs production and terrorism.

But Mr Chavez says it is part of an effort by Washington to turn Colombia into the “Israel of Latin America”.

Whatever could Chavez mean? Israel’s occupation of Palestine is seen as ,at the very least, partially funded and supported by U.S. dollars (before I get hit by the anti-semite stick that is always used against me when I mention this, I am talking about the state of Israel, not Jews or Jewishness, don’t make me get all 101 on your ass). Is Colombia now being funded to help in further colonization of Latin America by the U.S and is Venezuela being targeted for calling that out?

Via / BBC With a special thanks to Patrick who always makes sure that Venezuela and Colombia are on VL’s radar.

Image Via / Al Jazeera