Venezuela, Ecuador Amass Troops on Colombia Border

President Hugo Chavez ordered tanks and thousands of troops on Sunday to the border with Colombia, accusing it of pushing South America to the brink of war by killing a top rebel leader on Ecuadorean soil.

Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, also ordered troops to the Colombian border, saying "Ecuadorean territory has been outraged and bombed by an air attack and the later incursion of (Colombian) troops."

Chavez warned Colombia’s U.S.-allied government, led by President Alvaro Uribe, that Venezuela will not permit acts like Saturday’s killing of top rebel leader Raul Reyes and 16 other Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas at a camp across the border in Ecuador.

"This could be the start of a war in South America," the leftist leader said. He warned: "If it occurs to you to do this in Venezuela, President Uribe, I’ll send some Sukhois" – Russian warplanes recently bought by Venezuela.

He ordered the Venezuelan Embassy in Bogota closed and said all embassy personnel would be withdrawn. Ecuador also withdrew its ambassador and ordered Colombia’s top diplomat expelled.

The situation pushes already-tense relations between the South American neighbors to their lowest point yet, with potentially far- reaching effects on billions of dollars in cross-border trade.

Though Chavez didn’t say how many troops he was sending, a Venezuelan battalion traditionally has some 600 soldiers – meaning some 6,000 could be headed to the border.

Chavez called the Colombian government "a terrorist state" as he sided with the leftist rebels it has battled for decades, saying its military "invaded Ecuador, flagrantly violated Ecuador’s sovereignty."

Neither Colombia’s foreign minister nor the country’s military leadership would comment on Chavez’s latest move when pressed by reporters for comment Sunday as they left a funeral service in Bogota for a Colombian soldier killed in Saturday’s raid.

Speaking in Texas, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said officials were monitoring the situation.

"This is an odd reaction by Venezuela to Colombia’s efforts against the FARC, a terrorist organization that continues to hold Colombians, Americans and others hostage," Johndroe said.