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Caracas: Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa visited Latin American powerhouse Brazil yesterday on his regional tour to push Colombia to apologise for a military operation in Ecuador as an Andean crisis escalated.
Venezuela and Ecuador have moved troops to their borders and cut diplomatic ties with Colombia, which got backing from US President George W. Bush on Tuesday, while diplomats in Europe and the Americas asked all sides for calm.
Many Latin American leaders have condemned Colombia for entering Ecuador to kill FARC guerrillas on Saturday.
The crisis has pitted Correa, Venezuela's anti-US President Hugo Chavez and their allies in the left-leaning region against Colombia, which receives billions of dollars in US military aid to fight drug traffickers and guerrillas.
"The aggressor has to apologise and the international community condemn him," Correa told journalists in Brasilia. "If not we will have to defend ourselves with our own means."
Colombia said it has already apologised and said Correa should take responsibility for sheltering the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the oldest insurgency in Latin America.
Chavez, who sent tanks to his country's border with Colombia, has warned war could break out, although political analysts say that is unlikely. Conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe accused Chavez of genocide for sponsoring the rebels, who Chavez is openly sympathetic to.
Correa was scheduled to meet Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva later yesterday before flying to Venezuela to meet Chavez. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez also was travelling to Caracas to meet with Chavez, who calls Bush "Mr Danger". Venezuela briefly blocked border trade with Colombia on Tuesday.
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