South American foreign ministers meet in Ecuador on Thursday to discuss broken ties between Venezuela and Colombia, with sparks likely over the two Andean nations' clashing plans to fix a crisis over leftist rebels. The gathering of the 12-member Union of South American Nations is the first encounter between the two governments since Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez severed relations last week over Bogota's charges his country harbors Colombian guerrillas in comfortable camps, according to Reuters. Chavez then warned that close U.S. ally Colombia was planning a military attack, and threatened to stop the OPEC nation's oil supplies to the United States if that happened. With Venezuela calling for peace talks to end decades of civil war in Colombia and Bogota saying its neighbor should help it fight the Marxist rebels instead, a solution to the crisis was unlikely on Thursday. "I really don't have high expectations," Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said before heading to Quito. The rift is a headache for incoming Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who takes over from Alvaro Uribe on Aug. 7 and has vowed to improve relations and revive billions of dollars in lost trade. Uribe, a conservative who has increasingly spoken bluntly as his rule nears its end, hit out at regional heavyweight Brazil on Thursday. Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has offered to mediate in the dispute and said on Wednesday that patience was needed to resolve what he called a verbal conflict. "The President deplores that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, with whom we have cultivated the best ties, refers to our situation with Venezuela as if it were a case of personal affairs," Uribe's office said in a statement. Colombia had long sought a dialogue, it added, and the only solution was for Venezuela to stop tolerating the presence of "terrorists." The rift marks a new low in relations between two of Latin America's most militarized and ideologically opposed nations. Chavez has seized on the alleged threat of an attack from Colombia to mobilize supporters ahead of Sept. 26 legislative elections in which his socialist party could lose seats as the economy struggles with recession.
