VENEZUELA CALLS HOME ITS AMBASSADOR

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela called home its ambassador to Colombia
for consultation Monday, another sign of tensions between the two neighbors
that began when a Colombian guerrilla leader was allowed to address the
Venezuelan Congress.

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel recalled Ambassador Roy
Chaderton three days after Colombia called home its ambassador to
Venezuela, German Bula, to "evaluate the current state of relations between
the two countries." Both diplomats were expected to return to their posts
within days.

Colombian politicians have condemned Venezuela for allowing Olga Marin,
spokeswoman for the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC, to speak to the legislature.

The speech came in a forum on Colombia's U.S.-backed anti drug plan, and
was part of a meeting of a Latin America-wide parliamentary group not a
session of Venezuela's legislature.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said that the Plan Colombia, backed by
$1.3 billion in mostly military assistance from the United States, will
exacerbate fighting in Colombia's 36-year-old civil conflict and send
thousands of refugees, guerrillas and drug traffickers to Venezuela and
other neighboring countries.

Rangel on Monday said Colombia was overreacting to Marin's speech and
insisted that Venezuela has not sided with the FARC or any other rebel group.

On Sunday, Chavez said criticism toward him came from a "rancid Colombian
oligarchy that does not understand peace" and is "responsible for the
tragedy of the Colombian people."

In response to those comments, Manuel Ramiro Velasquez, the president of
the Foreign Relations Commission of the Colombian Congress, said: "Chavez
does not understand Colombian politics. We are authentic spokespeople of
the Colombian people and we refuse to accept the Venezuelan president's
systematic and inappropriate intrusions into the peace process."

Also, Rangel announced that Venezuela has suspended the Dec. 8-10 annual
Andean Presidential Summit at the request of those countries invited to the
meeting. Rangel said the presidents of Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador
were not able to fit the summit into their schedules.