Venezuela deployed tanks and air and sea forces toward the Colombian border in its first major military mobilisation of the crisis with its neighbour, the Opec nation's defence minister said on Wednesday.
The action escalates tensions over a Colombian weekend raid inside another South American neighbour, Ecuador, to kill rebels in an operation that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says could spark a war in the Andean region.
While leftist allies Ecuador and Venezuela have poured soldiers toward their borders with US-backed Colombia in recent days, there had been noticeable movement of heavy firepower.
"I vote for peace and sovereignty," Defence Minister Gustavo Rangel said at a news conference. "We are here working for peace and prepared to defend our sovereignty." With governments worldwide urging the nations to defuse tensions, Colombia has said it will not deploy extra forces to its borders in response.
The crisis pits leftists allies Venezuela and Ecuador against Colombia, which receives billions of dollars in US military aid to fight drug traffickers and guerrillas. US President George W. Bush has condemned Chavez' "provocative manoeuvres," vowed to oppose any aggression in the region and said Washington will stand by Colombia in the crisis.
Chavez says Bush is using conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as a proxy in a plot to invade Venezuela, a major oil exporter to the United States. Washington denies the charge, similar to many the Cuba ally has made before.