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Caracas: Venezuela and Ecuador sent troops to their borders with Colombia after their Andean neighbour bombed Colombian rebels inside Ecuador in an attack Caracas said could spark a war.
Escalating the worst dispute in the region for years, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez deployed tanks to the frontier and mobilised warplanes, while President Rafael Correa bolstered Ecuador's military presence along the border.
Chavez ordered Venezuela's embassy in Bogota to be shut indefinitely from Monday and withdrew all of his diplomats.
Correa, a fellow leftist and close ally of the anti-US Chavez, expelled Colombia's ambassador and recalled his own envoy in protest over what he said was a calculated violation of his small nation's sovereignty.
Chavez said, "May God spare us a war. But we are not going to allow them to violate our sovereign territory," warning he would attack Colombia with Russia-made jets if his neighbour carried out a raid in his OPEC country.
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