Fears of military conflict between Venezuela & Colombia as tensions over Maduro government escalate
The U.S.-led effort to force Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from office has moved into a new stage, with rising fears of military conflict between Venezuela and Colombia, and the activation of a 70-year-old mutual defense treaty among countries of the Western Hemisphere.
Members of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance agreed last week to invoke the 1947 pact, better known as the Rio Treaty, that allows joint actions ranging from economic sanctions to the use of military force and cutting transport and communications links. Foreign ministers of the treaty’s 19 member nations are due to meet later this month to decide which measures are necessary to stem the threat.
“If your neighbor’s house is burning down, do you stand and shout you should not intervene, or do you help your neighbor put out the fire?” Carlos Trujillo, U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), said in a heated debate on the issue Wednesday.
Colombia has charged that Maduro, who announced military exercises on their shared border last week, is hosting and arming Colombian guerrillas who have threatened to reignite a terrorist campaign, including what Colombia’s intelligence service contends are plans to begin bombing central sites in Bogota, the capital, according to U.S. and Latin American officials.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/fears-of-military-conflict-between-venezuela-and-colombia-as-tensions-over-maduro-government-escalate/2019/09/15/c2a4ff88-d621-11e9-9610-fb56c5522e1c_story.html?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
So Columbia's going to be our proxy now?