Ecuador & Venezuela order troops to Colombia border

Ecuador has joined Venezuela in deploying troops to their borders with Colombia after Bogota bombed Colombian Farc rebels inside Ecuador. Rafael Correa, the Ecuadorean president, also expelled Colombia's ambassador and withdrew his own envoy from Bogota in protest against what he said was an intentional violation of his nation's sovereignty.

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, had earlier on Sunday mobilised warplanes and ordered tank battalions to the Colombian border. He also ordered Venezuela's embassy in Colombia to be shut and diplomatic staff withdrawn, warning that Colombia's actions could spark a war in South America.

"We do not want war but we are not going to let them ... come and divide and weaken us," Chavez said on his weekly TV show. On Saturday, Colombia's military announced its troops had killed Raul Reyes, a Farc leader, during an attack on a jungle camp in Ecuador, a blow to the group behind Latin America's oldest insurgency.

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