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Colombian FM dismisses severing ties with Venezuela as "unthinkable"

Xinhua, August 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said Friday that it would be "unthinkable" to sever diplomatic ties with Venezuela amid a crisis which has seen Venezuela close border crossings and deport over 1,000 Colombian citizens.

"Breaking off relations with a neighbor is something unthinkable and impossible. Only dialogue and help from third parties...can help the situation. Many things link us to Venezuela," Holguin told Colombian media.

The top Colombian diplomat also announced that the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) are analyzing the humanitarian crisis caused by the mass deportations.

"These are innocent families. They have told us Venezuela should have told them they needed to go, but they were not even allowed to take their belongings," she revealed.

On Thursday, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos called an extraordinary meeting of the Unasur foreign ministers, informing them about the humanitarian crisis.

Santos also announced that he had made this decision before Venezuela denied entry to a Colombian human rights envoy, who was seeking to investigate the conditions in which Colombians were deported over the last week.

However, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday that, during the deportations, Venezuelan troops had found a paramilitary base along the Tachira river inside Venezuela, where numerous crimes were committed, including sexual exploitation, kidnapping and smuggling.

He would not lift the closure of his country's border with Colombia, until Bogota stopped the smuggling of Venezuelan products and its attacks on the bolivar currency, Maduro said. Endit