MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Violence has rocked the Venezuelan-Colombian border amid crackdowns on migrants and smugglers over the past two weeks. An attack on a Colombian border patrol unit prompted Bogota to shut its side of the border last week.
"The President of the Republic on Thursday ordered the Foreign Ministry to recall the Ambassador of Colombia in Venezuela, Ricardo Lozano, for consultations," a statement published on Santos’ website reads.
Venezuela's top diplomat made a similar statement on her Twitter account.
"Following instructions from [Venezuelan] President Nicolas Maduro, we called our ambassador in the Republic of Colombia, Ivan Rincon," Rodriguez posted on her microblog, late on Thursday.
In his statement, Colombia’s Santos instructed Holguin to convene an extraordinary meeting of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) "to address the issue of abuses that have been committed against Colombians deported from Venezuela."
Maduro was quoted by the teleSUR network as saying that the Colombian leader’s allegations were false.
