The Vice President, who participated in the XXXVIII Mercosur’s Presidents Summit in Montevideo, also reiterated that Colombia has not purchased any kind of offensive armaments and that the agreement signed with the United States has one only goal, which is to fight terrorism and drug trafficking.

Montevideo, Dec 8 (SP). The Vice President of Colombia, Francisco Santos, expressed the Colombian Government’s satisfaction to the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, for the announcement he made on Tuesday about that they have no intentions or projects to deploy military actions against Colombia.

At the XXXVIII Mercosur’s Presidents Summit, Vice President Santos told President Chávez that as Heads of State, in charge of the destiny of the countries of the region, their duty must be to serve as firefighters to face problems with serenity and not as pyromaniacs poking conflicts.

“As you have said we are the same people and our common challenge is integration, not confrontation”, he pointed out.

Santos reiterated President Alvaro Uribe’s decision of not answering insults with other insults, or offenses with more offenses.

He highlighted that Colombia has not purchased any kind of offensive armaments and that the agreement signed with the United States has one only goal that is to fight terrorism and drug trafficking.

“It can’t be any doubt about it. From the military bases of Colombia, there will never be aggressions or hostile actions against any country of the region”, he said.

In addition, he said that Colombia has expressed its vocation for integration in multiple treaties and agreements, as the ones signed with Mexico, with the countries of the North Triangle of Central America, with the Andean Community, Mercosur, Chile and Unasur.

He also reiterated Colombia’s dissatisfaction for the trade obstruction of Venezuela, and he said that this unilateral decision has had a negative impact for many companies and serious repercussions for employment.

“That clearly goes against integration, main subject of this assembly. But, as with the other issues of our relation with Venezuela, we encourage a friendly solution through dialogue and understanding”, he concluded