Negative Blogs

Venezuela’s president says he has deployed troops to the border with Colombia, as tensions rise between the two South American countries.

Hugo Chavez said Friday he believed the outgoing government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe could be planning to attack Venezuela.

The move follows Colombia’s accusations last week that Venezuela is harboring leftist Colombian rebels.

Mr. Chavez, denying the charge, had harsh words for Mr. Uribe.  In a phone call to a Venezuelan television show Friday, Mr. Chavez said the Colombian President should see a psychologist, saying he sees peace as a “little trap.”

Colombia’s president-elect, Juan Manuel Santos, has promised to continue Mr. Uribe’s security policies.

The head of Colombia’s largest leftist rebel group Friday proposed talks with the incoming government to resolve the country’s internal conflict. 

Alfonso Cano, who commands the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, issued the proposal in a video message.  There was no immediate response from President-elect Santos.

On Thursday, Colombia and Venezuela brought their grievances to a group of South American foreign ministers meeting in Ecuador..  But members of the Union of South American Nations, or UNASUR, were unable to resolve the crisis.

The Venezuelan president severed ties with Colombia last week after Colombia went before the Organization of American States’ permanent council in Washington to present photographs, maps, coordinates and videos it said show 1,500 guerrillas hiding inside Venezuela.

Venezuela said the items did not provide any solid evidence of a guerrilla presence there.

By VOA News

A mudslide on the famed Inca trail to Machu Picchu killed an Argentine tourist and a Peruvian guide Tuesday, as authorities evacuated hundreds of tourists by helicopter from a flood zone where more than 1,500 others were still stranded.

Cuzco government spokesman Hernet Moscoso said the Argentine, identified as Lucia Ramallo, 23, and the guide, Washington Huaraya, were in their tents when a slope gave way and their tents were crushed. Three other tourists were injured.

Authorities closed the Inca trail, a popular tourist trek that follows a stone path built by the ancient civilization from their capital, Cuzco, to the Machu Picchu citadel.

The deaths raised to five the number of people killed by heavy rains that have caused floods and landslides and collapsed homes, Moscoso said.

Of the 2,000 stranded tourists in the villages of Machu Picchu Pueblo and Aguas Calientes near the citadel, government and private helicopters managed to fly 475 to safety Tuesday, Tourism Minister Martin Perez said.

“Tomorrow, if God helps us and the weather permits us, we should be able to get out 700 or 800 tourists in eight hours,” Perez said.

Hundreds of tourists were caught in the villages Sunday because mudslides blocked the railway to Cuzco, which is the only way in or out of the Machu Picchu area.

Peruvian and U.S. authorities sent four Peruvian military helicopters and four U.S. counternarcotics helicopters to bolster rescue efforts Tuesday. The U.S. helicopters are based in Peru and normally used for drug interdiction and police training.

Rail operator Perurail also rented two helicopters to ferry in supplies and evacuate tourists, the company said in a statement.

There was no immediate word on how many people were taken out.

In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said about 400 American citizens were believed to be stranded.

“These are difficult conditions,” he told reporters. “We’ve moved some embassy personnel from Lima to the area as well to try to provide assistance to the Peruvian police and military authorities.”

Some 700 Argentines, 309 Chileans and 30 Uruguayans were also stranded in Machu Picchu Pueblo, according to those countries’ embassies in Lima.

Five days of torrential rains in the Cuzco region have destroyed bridges, 250 houses and hundreds of acres (hectares) of crops, while blocking highways and the railway to Machu Picchu.

Perurail suspended train service Sunday due to mudslides and the flooding of the Urubamba River.

Tourists slept in Machu Picchu village’s train station and the central plaza after hostels ran out of space, while restaurants raised prices as food became scarce.

Travelers “are angry and worried, and some are getting desperate,” said Ruben Baldeon, the town spokesman.

Local media reported some tourists were trying to walk back along the tracks to a highway outside Cuzco.

Alberto Bisbal, disaster prevention director at Peru’s Civil Defense Institute, told The Associated Press that Perurail and the government were working to clear rock and mud from the tracks, and service might be able to resume Wednesday.

The downpours stopped Tuesday morning, but meteorologists predicted light precipitation for the rest of the week.

The rainy season in Peru’s southern highlands is expected to last through March. Hard money training.

Peru National Police attacked unarmed amazonian Indigenous civilians in the Amazon region this morning - more than 38 killed, including 28 Indigenous and 10 police.

A further seven were still missing after the military moved to free them from protesters angry at plans to drill for oil and gas on ancestral land.

The hostages were taken on Friday during clashes near Bagua which left at least 22 tribesmen and 11 police dead.

A police official accused the protesters of killing the hostages.

This is the worst violence in Peru since the end of the Shining Path insurgency in the 1990s and the biggest internal challenge faced by President Alan Garcia since he came to power in 2006.

The natives killed also showed obvious bullet holes, especially in lower extremities and is presumed killed by bleeding.