US troops to Colombia in Venezuela row? Pentagon mum

WASHINGTON: Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan would not rule out Tuesday a US military deployment to Colombia, one day after National Security Advisor John Bolton displayed a note suggesting the move amid a political crisis in neighboring Venezuela.

Bolton on Monday was photographed at a White House briefing holding a notepad with the scrawled line: "5,000 troops to Colombia." "I haven't discussed that with Secretary Bolton," Shanahan said when asked if there was a plan to send thousands of troops to Colombia. When repeatedly asked if he was ruling out such a deployment, Shanahan said: "I'm not commenting on it."

Bolton was holding a notepad while speaking to reporters about the crisis in Venezuela, where the US now recognizes opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's interim president. During his briefing, Bolton would not rule out the use of US troops in Venezuela.

"The president has made it clear on this matter that all options are on the table," he said. The US military currently has about 200 troops in Colombia, and the two countries have developed close security ties over past decades.

Shanahan, who was previously deputy defense secretary, succeeded Jim Mattis at the start of the year after he quit amid disagreements with President Donald Trump.In Venezuela, Russia risks losing an ally and billions: As President Nicolas Maduro's rule hangs in the balance in Venezuela, Russia risks losing its long-cultivated main ally in Latin America and billions invested in oil and arms contracts. Russian President Vladimir Putin spent years building up an alliance with Venezuela's late populist leader Hugo Chavez and his successor Maduro, often playing host to the two in Moscow.

As pressure has built on Maduro from self-proclaimed acting president Juan Guaido and his Western allies, Russia has stood firm behind its man in Caracas. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday vowed Moscow would "do everything" to protect its ally.

Behind this support, analysts say, is an understanding that if it loses Venezuela, Moscow will have few allies to speak of in Latin America. "Venezuela is practically the last thing that Vladimir Putin has left in Latin America," said Vladimir Rouvinski, a Russian international relations specialist at Colombia's Icesi University.

Moscow likes to present itself as an "alternative" superpower in Washington's backyard. But while it has close ties with Venezuela and traditional ally Communist Cuba, Moscow's relations with Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina have been hit by recent changes of leadership there, Rouvinski said. Russia shored up its alliance with Venezuela as the second largest lender to Caracas after China, supplying it with tanks and Kalashnikovs and investing in the country's main asset, its oil resources.

As recently as last month Maduro announced during a visit to Moscow that Russia would invest $6 billion in Venezuela's oil and mining sectors. Now Russia "runs the risk that all these long-matured relationships... will turn out to be devalued," said Nikolai Petrov, a professor at Moscow's Higher School of Economics.

The rapprochement between Russia and Venezuela dates back to Chavez, who espoused what he called "21st century socialism". The relationship continued to thrive after Maduro took over following Chavez's death in 2013, with Caracas acquiring Russian arms and military equipment in deals worth $11 billion between 2005 and 2017.

Moscow, along with China and Turkey, has maintained that support since Maduro's disputed re-election in May last year and opposition leader Guaido's naming of himself as interim president.

With the United States and a dozen Latin American countries recognising Guaido -- and Europe demanding new elections -- Putin called Maduro last week to endorse the "lawful authorities".