Venezuela explodes border bridges

  
"These serious acts will be denounced to the secretary general of the Organization of American States and the president of the UN Security Council," Colombia's deputy foreign minister Clemencia Forero said.
  
Caracas said the footbridges were destroyed in defense of its sovereignty because the border crossings were used by drug traffickers.
  
Responding to the latest Colombian allegations, Venezuela's Vice President and Defense Minister Ramon Carrizalez called the complaint "a provocation" and a "manipulation of reality."
  
On the long, remote border "makeshift crossings are used for drug trafficking and smuggling, and we must defend our sovereignty," Carrizalez said.
  
The Colombian complaint marks a further ratcheting up of tensions between the two countries in the wake of a controversial US-Colombian agreement granting the US military access to seven Colombian bases.
  
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez earlier this month warned his nation to prepare "for war," prompting Colombia to lodge a diplomatic note with the UN Security Council accusing Caracas of threatening to use force against it.
  
Caracas then accused Bogota of detaining four of its soldiers in international waters.
  
The four members of Venezuela's national guard, who were detained in Colombia Saturday and released a day later, were not on Colombian territory when they were taken, a Venezuelan national guard general insisted.