By Pascal Fletcher
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's army warned neighbour Colombia on Friday it was ready to repel any attacks a day after President Hugo Chavez cut ties over Bogota's charges that Venezuela was harbouring leftist Colombian guerrillas.
Socialist Chavez's severing of diplomatic relations has ratcheted up tensions between OPEC member Venezuela, a major supplier of oil to the United States, and U.S. ally Colombia. Their volatile Andean region has long been plagued by marauding guerrilla armies and drug-trafficking gangs.
But while Venezuelan leaders heaped invective on outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, calling him a "warmonger," Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua said, "The situation on the frontier is normal."
Despite the break-off in ties, the main crossing point between San Antonio del Tachira in Venezuela and Cucuta in Colombia was open on Friday and vehicles and pedestrians were crossing, witnesses said. There was no sign of any immediate military build-up, although searches at road blocks on the Venezuelan side seemed to have been stepped up.
Most analysts believe a military clash is unlikely, but Colombia and Venezuela are among the most militarized nations in South America and have sparred and squabbled in the past over border security and guerrillas.
Venezuelan Defence Minister General Carlos Mata appeared on television, in military fatigues and flanked by top commanders, to declare loyalty to Chavez and to sternly warn Uribe.
Uribe, who will be replaced by President-elect Juan Manuel Santos on August 7, has ramped up accusations that Chavez's government gives free rein to left-wing guerrillas in Venezuelan territory.
Mata, echoing Chavez's words, rejected what he called Colombia's "aggression." Venezuela has dismissed as lies the charges by Colombia, which presented photos, videos and maps to the Organisation of American States to back its allegations about the rebels' presence.
"The Venezuelan people and the Colombian government should know that the (Venezuelan) Bolivarian National Armed Forces, as guarantor of the nation's security, will respond firmly if any foreign forces seek to violate our sacred soil," Mata said.
He said the Venezuelan military, which has some 20,000 troops along the porous 1,375-mile border, was "operationally prepared." A border commander, General Franklin Marquez, said frontier patrols had been stepped up.
Declaring the diplomatic break with Bogota on Thursday, Chavez ordered "maximum alert" on the frontier but there have been no reports of significant troop movements so far.
LOSS OF COMMERCE
Bilateral trade, which once stood at $7 billion annually, has plummeted since Chavez suspended commercial ties last year to protest at a deal by Bogota allowing U.S. forces to use Colombian military bases.
Chavez, who portrays himself as an anti-U.S. and anti-capitalist standard bearer in Latin America, says these "imperialist" bases threaten Venezuela.
Analysts say both countries could lose if the rift deepens. Venezuelan private industry association Conindustria urged the country's leaders to resume dialogue with Bogota, saying the falloff in trade hurt Venezuela's economy too.
"Unfortunately, the ones who pay the consequences of these conflicts are consumers, because they suffer the problems of scarcity and rising prices through the break in the commercial flow between the two countries," Conindustria said.
Chavez has publicly expressed the hope Colombian-Venezuelan relations, which were turbulent with Uribe in power, can be returned to normal under Santos, who has been careful to avoid public comment on the dispute so far.
Santos, who as defence minister played a major role in Uribe's energetic military sweeps against guerrilla groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has said he favours dialogue with Caracas.
As the nationalist rhetoric flowed, other Latin American governments, including regional powerhouse Brazil and the Unasur grouping of South American states, were working to try to defuse the crisis through diplomatic mediation.
However, Colombia said it could take its allegations of cross-border attacks by rebels it says are based in Venezuela to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Bogota says Venezuela is failing in its international obligations by not acting against the drug-trafficking guerrillas.
(Additional reporting by Eyanir Chinea; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
