The trade union of workers of the Colombian automotive industry asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on Tuesday to reconsider a restriction placed on the import of vehicles that has led already to the dismissal of 5,000 employees from Colombian assembly plants.

"We are facing a critical situation, because if things continue this way, dismissals will increase," Guillermo Charca, the trade union leader, told reporters, AFP quoted.

Charca said that he asked the Venezuelan president to change up his mind to prevent the layoffs and subsequent hunger among thousand Colombian families.

The Venezuelan government set a quota beginning this year that limits to 160,000 units the number of imported vehicles, 20,000 of which come from Colombia. In 2007, that country exported 60,000 cars to Venezuela.