SANTA MARTA, Colombia, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- The future of illegal arms flows to anti-Colombian FARC rebels is in the balance after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and newly elected Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos met to patch up their differences.
"The rapprochement certainly removes some major reasons for recent arms buying by both sides," Mark Bromley, analyst with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute told United Press International in an interview.
Last year and earlier this year, both Colombia and Venezuela announced massive defense spending programs valued at more than $3 billion. The two countries' arms buying raised concerns Latin America could be heading for an arms race.
Venezuela went on a major arms shopping spree in Russia after Colombia signed a deal allowing U.S. forces to use its military base in the fight against drug cartels. Included in the Russian arms deal is a line of credit in excess of $2 billion that Venezuela plans to use to buy Russian submarines and other hardware.
Bromley said the diplomatic patch-up, if it lasts, would remove some key reasons for the two countries competing with each other for pursuing arms purchases in Europe, Russia and Latin American manufacturers, such as Brazil.
Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia in July in a deeply personalized quarrel between Chavez and former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. But, with Santos in the president seat, Chavez toned down his rhetoric against Colombia. The summit signaled the end of the 19-day diplomatic break and early resumption of trade.
Colombia depends on the revenue from exports to Venezuela. Chavez needs consumer imports from Colombia to ensure there are no shortages before the National Assembly elections in September.
The current sources of weapons in the hands of FARC rebels remained a mystery, said Bromley. Statements issued after the Chavez-Santos summit left unanswered the question of whether the Venezuelan government would take measures to stop all FARC activities in its territory.
The diplomatic patch-up would make it difficult for any elements in Venezuela to sustain weapons supplies to FARC, while the level of government involvement in the armament of the rebels or their paramilitary activities directed at Colombia remains hard to measure.
Colombia accuses Venezuela of arming FARC, a charge that Caracas denies.
However, Swedish officials have been querying Chavez after weapons made in that country and delivered to Venezuela showed up in FARC hands after a Colombian military operation.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia grew out of the turmoil between liberal and conservative militias in the 1950s. Initially directed by the Colombian Communist Party, FARC unleashed a wave of violence and more recently has been linked to organized crime and "narcoterrorism" groups engaged in lethal battles for control of the markets for drugs in Central and North America.
The FARC has well-documented ties to the full range of narcotics trafficking activities, including taxation, cultivation and distribution, the Federation of American Scientists said.
"We have had a frank, direct, sincere dialogue like in all good relations," Santos said. "We have taken a huge step forward in restoring confidence," he added, after Venezuela apparently agreed to pay about $800 million owed to Colombian exporters and blocked while the political disputes festered.
"I came here to turn over the page," Chavez said.
The pair shook hands and stood under a statue of Simon Bolivar, the Latin revolutionary who died in the city in 1830.
Santa Marta is a point of frequent political pilgrimage by Chavez, who recently ordered an investigation to determine if Bolivar, generally thought to have succumbed to tuberculosis, was assassinated by arsenic poisoning.
