Venezuela Sends Tanks To Colombian Border

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered troops and tanks to the border with Colombia and ordered the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota closed.

Chavez is threatening war because Columbian forces killed FARC leader and terrorist Raul Reyes, in a firefight near the Ecuadorean border:

The second-highest-ranking leader in Colombia's largest leftist guerrilla group was killed in a predawn firefight near the Ecuadorean border, the Colombian government announced Saturday morning.

Luis Edgar Devia Silva, better known by his alias Raul Reyes, was found dead early Saturday in a jungle camp in Ecuador after a battle erupted between rebels and Colombian armed forces in southern Putumayo state and continued on the Ecuadorean side of the border.

Reyes, 59, was second in the hierarchy of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and was the rebel group's principal spokesman and chief diplomat. He was one of 50 FARC leaders indicted in the United States on drug and terrorism charges in March 2006. The U.S. State Department had offered a $5-million reward for information leading to his arrest.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, Reyes was wanted in connection with 57 murders and four cases of kidnapping, and also faced charges for 26 counts of terrorism and 25 for rebellion.

Columbia has been making progress against FARC, but the killing of Reyes is the first time one of the members of the FARC's ruling body, the seven-man Secretariat, has ever been killed.