Colombia accuses Venezuela of imposing Cuba-like embargo

By Andrea

On December 2, 2009 Colombian President Alvaro Uribe accused Venezuela of imposing an illegal trade blockade similar to the U.S. embargo on Cuba. He said to local radio that "In Venezuela, there is an embargo against the Colombian economy. It is an illegal, unjust embargo".
Although Venezuela would seem to rely on Colombian food products, Chavez started to look for alternative supplies from other neighbor countries, namely from Argentina and Brazil. Compared with October last year, Colombian exports to Venezuela fell 56 percent. The reason for that is apparently Chavez's disagreement with the contract signed by Colombia and the U.S. Furthermore, this agreement seems to have put countries' $7 billion a year in bilateral trade at stake.