BOGOTA, Colombia — Venezuela and Ecuador reinforced their borders with Colombia on Tuesday as the three nations traded increasingly bitter accusations over Colombia's cross-border strike on a leftist guerrilla base in Ecuador.
President Bush said the United States will stand by Colombia and criticized Venezuela's government for making "provocative maneuvers." Colombia has received $5 billion in U.S. aid to fight drugs and leftist rebels since 2000.
Rejecting a Colombian apology as insufficient, Ecuador sought international condemnation of the attack during an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States, convened in Washington to help defuse one of South America's most volatile crises in years. Venezuela's justice minister declared that war "has already begun."
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa called his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, a "bold-faced liar." Uribe demanded the International Criminal Court try Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for genocide.
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Colombia said documents found at the base showed rebels wanted to make a radioactive "dirty bomb."
But the documents it shared with reporters didn't support the allegation, indicating instead that the rebels were trying to buy uranium to resell at a profit.
Uribe said Chavez should be prosecuted for financing the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Uribe cited the documents in a laptop seized in rebel spokesman Raul Reyes' jungle camp that he said showed Venezuela recently made a $300 million payment to the rebels.
Venezuela and Ecuador dismissed all the allegations as lies.
At the moment, it's mostly a war of words, and other nations tried Tuesday to keep it that way, although many said Colombia was wrong to send troops into Ecuador. The Saturday raid killed 23 guerrillas, including Reyes, who was engaged in hostage talks with Venezuela, France and other countries.
Chavez, who sympathizes with the leftist rebels, condemned the killing and angrily ordered 9,000 soldiers — 10 battalions — to Venezuela's border with Colombia.
He warned Uribe that any strike in Venezuela could provoke a war.
Uribe said he has provided Chavez with precise information on the location of rebel camps in Venezuela. He said one was the home of Ivan Marquez, another top FARC leader.
But Uribe said he would not let his nation be drawn into a conflict with its neighbors.
"Colombia has never been a country to go to war with its neighbors," Uribe said. "We are not mobilizing troops."
