Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Monday asked his Colombian counterpart Álvaro Uribe to reflect and not to be swept away by "those dreadful trends of warmongering and aggression" when rejecting recent statements by the Defense Minister in Bogota, who said that the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces' bases, as the one attacked earlier this month,  are legitimate military targets.

Chávez said Uribe should "keep at bay the war hawks, such as your Defense Minister. He is the voice of the Empire."

The Venezuelan ruler pointed out that he got worried when reading remarks by Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, who said that "Colombia carried out a legitimate warfare in Ecuador, and he added that they are even ready to go to anyplace to look for terrorists in a similar operation."