Chavez: Ready to cut ties with Colombia

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he is preparing to break off diplomatic relations with Colombia over the neighboring country's plan to allow U.S. troops access to its military bases.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, shown this month, said a Colombia-U.S. deal is a declaration of war.

"It is going to happen," Chavez said on Tuesday in a state broadcast. "We are going to prepare for this, because the Colombian bourgeoisie hates us. And now, it just isn't possible to make up. No, it is impossible."

"The agreement of the seven bases is a declaration of war against the Bolivarian Revolution," Chavez added, referring to his socialist political movement, which he named after 19th-century Venezuelan leader Simon Bolivar.

Relations between the two countries have been tense since Colombia entered into negotiations with the United States to allow its troops to operate from seven bases.

Colombia says the troops will tackle drug traffickers and leftist guerillas. And the United States says it needs the bases because Ecuador has ordered the closing of a U.S. installation there.

Chavez says the troops have an ulterior motive: They could be used to unseat him.

Tension between the two countries heightened in recent weeks, after Colombia said Venezuela supplied Colombian guerillas with shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons.

Three anti-tank weapons seized from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had been traced to Venezuela, Colombia said earlier this month.

FARC has been fighting the Colombian government for more than 45 years. Chavez, at the time, said the accusation amounted to blackmail.

"What a coincidence that this information comes from Colombia one day after we started to raise our voice against the installation of Yankee bases in Colombian territory," Chavez said in a televised news conference.

"Of course this is not a coincidence," he said. "This is the government of Colombia trying to blackmail us."

Colombian president has H1N1 virus

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is infected with the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, his spokesman told CNN en Espanol on Sunday.
Uribe is in stable condition and under medical supervision at the presidential palace in Bogota, spokesman Cesar Mauricio Velasquez said.

Hilary Duff brings her charity work to Colombia

BOGOTA – Singer-actress Hilary Duff brought her Blessings in a Backpack program to Colombia Friday to distribute 3,000 knapsacks of food to poor children in a school district south of the capital city.

Duff will spend three days visiting children and participating in a vaccination campaign. She was greeted by Bogota Mayor Samuel Moreno, whom Duff said gave her "an amazing invitation" to bring the program to Colombia.

"We've been working for four years feeding children over the weekends," she said. "They invited us to come here, and we got our first school in Bogota."

Duff and USA Harvest founder Stan Curtis started Blessings in a Backpack for children who get their best meals at school, giving them backpacks of food every Friday to take home and share with their families when they're away from their main source of nutrition. The program serves 106 schools and 26,000 children in the U.S. and Canada.

Colombia is the third country to take on the program, said Duff, 21, who earned fame as the teenage character Lizzie McGuire in a Disney series of the same title. She has appeared more recently in "War, Inc." and "Material Girls" and recorded several hit songs and music videos.

Duff said she only has time to visit Colombia because of work. She is filming six episodes of the television series "Gossip Girl," followed by a romantic comedy and a remake of "Bonnie and Clyde."

When asked if she had a favorite Colombian singer, she said Shakira, who also does charity work with children in her home country.

"I think she's an amazing writer," Duff said. "She really has a strong idea of what she wants and she can play a lot of instruments and that really impresses me."