Colombia Nov. 14 deported four members of the Venezuelan National Guard who were allegedly detained on Colombian territory a day earlier. Bogotá says the men were stopped by a Colombian naval patrol in a boat on a river in the remote border department of Vichada. Colombia's Administrative Security Department said the men were turned over the Venezuelan authorities at the border town of Puerto Páez. Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe made much of the deportations as a magnanimous gesture, saying he intended them as a message of the "unbreakable affection" between the two countries. Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez called Uribe a "mafioso" in comments on the detainment of the guardsmen, and ruled out any dialogue with his "traitorous" government. (BBC News, Nov. 15; EFE, Nov. 14)

The New York Times virtually sneers in a Nov. 12 headline, "Blackouts Plague Energy-Rich Venezuela," reporting that despite vast reserves of oil, coal and natural gas, electricity is being cut for hours each day in rural areas and in industrial cities like Valencia and Ciudad Guayana, with water rationing instated in Caracas. This has all started since the government has largely taken over the energy sector. "We're paying for the mistakes of this president and his incompetent managers," said Aixa López, president of the Committee of Blackout Victims, which has organized protests in several cities. In some cities, protesters have left household appliances on the steps of state power companies.

Speaking at a ceremony at the Gualberto Villarroel Military Collage in La Paz marking the 199th anniversary of the Bolivian army, President Evo Morales warned that the United States has designs on the country's subsoil resources—especially naming gas, iron and lithium. He also again criticized the new military accord between Washington and Bogotá as a threat to the hemisphere, and said that in response Bolivia will seek new military deals with China and Russia. "It is an obligation of the national government to improve and equip the army," he said, while adding that new equipment will be used to defend Bolivia's sovereignty; "it will not be to humiliate the people or provoke neighbors." (TeleSUR, Nov. 14)

Colombian authorities ordered an extra 2,500 army troops to reinforce security in Corinto, a town in southwestern Cauca department, where nine soldiers were killed in a surprise attack by the FARC guerillas early Nov. 10. The decision to reinforce the present security force in the village was taken by Defense Minister Gabriel Silva and armed forces commander Freddy Padilla in an improvised security council. Gabriel Silva, who canceled a planned visit to the town at last minute for security reasons, also offered a 2 billion peso reward for information leading the arrest of Edgar López Gómez AKA "Pacho Chino"—considered the guerrilla commander in charge of the attack.

Gov. César Pérez of the Venezuelan border state of Táchira, accused President Hugo Chávez of protecting Colombian guerillas that operate in his state. Pérez said that both leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries from Colombia operate in nearly a third of his state, but Venezuelan troops ignore the prior. "The guerrillas are there with the government's blessing, and the military has orders to leave them alone," Pérez told the AP. "The government only fights the paramilitaries, and I think it's good they fight them, but the government has to do the same with the guerrillas, and it isn’t doing that."

While the US Embassy in Bogotá says the new agreement for expanded US access to Colombian military bases enters into force immediately, a Colombian court ruling finds the agreement is "broad and unbalanced" in favor of the United States and not based on any previous treaty, so therefore must be reviewed by Colombia's Congress and Constitutional Court. The agreement puts no limits on the number of US personnel to be deployed in Colombia nor on the number of military bases they will use.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Nov. 3 threatened to completely close the border with Colombia following the murder of two members of the Civil Guard by an alleged Venezuelan ally of Colombian paramilitaries. The two officials were shot by men on motorbikes just feet away from the border the previous day. Authorities on the Venezuelan side of the border near Cucuta immediately closed two main checkpoints connecting Colombia's Norte de Santander department and Venezuela's Tachira state. These were opened temporarily the next day to allow stuck travelers to cross. Trucks were not allowed to pass. "One of the measures we are studying is to declare an emergency at the border and, well, close it." Chavez said. (Colombia Reports, Nov. 4)

Venezuelan authorities Oct. 30 announced the arrest of eight Colombians and two local residents suspected of paramilitary activities in western Táchira state near the border between the two countries. Interior Minister Tarek El Aissami said the detained Colombians included a known paramilitary leader. Two firearms were captured with them, he said. "All these people were intimidating the local population and especially threatening local businessmen," he told state TV. "These people were handing out pamphlets, as the paramilitaries do, saying social cleansing was going to start—that is to say murders and disappearances." (Reuters, Oct. 30)