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Colombia: no official word on ties being severed with Venezuela
BOGOTA
Petroleumworld.com 11 30 07
Colombia said Thursday it has had no official word on ties being severed with Venezuela, after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he would have no dealings with President Alvaro Uribe.
"So far there had been no official communication whatsoever from the government of Venezuela" on severing diplomatic relations, Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo said.
The Venezuelan leader said last Sunday that he was putting diplomatic ties with Colombia "in a freezer," and has recalled his ambassador to Bogota for consultations after Uribe last week abruptly axed him as a mediator in negotiations to have leftist Colombian rebels free 45 hostages.
On Wednesday Chavez said in Tachira, Venezuela that "as long as Uribe is president, a president that is capable of brazenly lying, of showing disrespect for other presidents ... I will not have any sort of relations with him or with with the government of Colombia."
It was not clear whether Chavez was speaking personally or on behalf of his government.
Venezuela and Colombia are each other's second-biggest trading partners, sending more than four billion dollars' worth of goods over their shared border.
Story from AFP 29 1435 GMT 11 07
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