Chavez severs ties with Colombia

Caracas: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez broke off relations with Colombia on Wednesday, vowing not to restore ties while President Alvaro Uribe remains in power.

Uribe, Washington's top ally in South America, had last week abruptly cancelled Chavez's role as a mediator after he had initially invited his counterpart to help mediate a deal with leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a rebel Marxist outfit, to exchange jailed guerrillas for around 50 key hostages they are holding, including a French-Colombian woman and three US men.

Upset on the cards

President Hugo Chavez needs to fall back on his state-backed political machinery to avoid an unprecedented defeat when Venezuelans cast ballots on Sunday in a referendum on letting him run for re-election indefinitely. Most surveys over the past few days have put Chavez in the deficit as he pursues a constitutional overhaul that includes permitting him to stay in power as long as he keeps winning elections.