2008 Andean Diplomatic Crisis - Background

Background

In 2007, Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan President and Piedad Córdoba, a Colombian Senator, were acting as authorised mediators in the ongoing Humanitarian Exchange negotiations between the FARC and the government of Colombia. The Colombian President, Álvaro Uribe, had given Chávez permission to mediate, under the condition that all meetings with the FARC would take place in Venezuela and that Chávez would not contact members of the Colombian military directly, but instead go through the proper diplomatic channels. However, President Uribe of Colombia abruptly terminated the Venezuelan president's mediation efforts on November 22, 2007, after President Chávez personally contacted General Mario Montoya Uribe, the Commander of the Colombian National Army. In response to this, Chávez said that he was still willing to mediate but had withdrawn Venezuela's ambassador to Colombia and placed Colombian-Venezuelan relations "in a freezer". He also called Uribe a "liar and a cynic". President Uribe of Colombia responded to this by saying that Colombia needed "mediation against terrorism, not to legitimise terrorism," and that Chávez was not interested in bringing about peace in Colombia but instead, was engaged in an expansionist project in the region. From January to February 2008, FARC released six hostages "as a gesture of goodwill" toward Chávez, who had brokered the deal, and Chávez sent Venezuelan helicopters with Red Cross logos into the Colombian jungle to pick up the freed hostages.