Is Hugo Chávez's hostility toward Colombia the real reason Colombia has halted natural gas exports?

Colombia has temporarily halted exports of natural gas to Venezuela citing that they have done so to complete some regular maintenance on their pipeline. An official has said that export of gas will begin again next week. According to the same official the break has "nothing to do with the current diplomatic crisis the two nations are living through." That might be the official position of the Colombian government, but is there a hidden agenda?

Colombia has been under fire from across South America for recently signing a secretive agreement to allow U.S. military forces access to seven bases within the country. While Colombian officials suggest that this agreement has simply formalized what had previously been informal access granted to U.S. forces to help fight the "war on drugs," other South American leaders aren't so sure.

Venezuela President Hugo Chávez has threatened to break diplomatic ties with Colombia and has temporarily halted exports from his country to its more pro-American neighbor. For its part, the U.S. says no more than 1,400 troops and civilian contractors will be stationed in Colombia under the terms of the agreement. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also questioned Venezuela's recent military buildup saying, "We have expressed concern about the number of Venezuelan arms purchases; they outpace all other countries in South America." This military surge comes at a time when President Chávez is also signing considerably lucrative oil investment agreements with Russia and China, nations that are at times considered to be U.S. competitors politically and economically. The Economist ran a story about Chávez earlier this week writing that:

Mr Chávez is determined to play in the big leagues. His avowed calculation is that by helping to stir up trouble for America in many places simultaneously, he can bring about the collapse of “the empire”. The regimes he is so assiduously cultivating are, by this account, the nucleus of a new world order. Although this seems far-fetched perhaps the world should start to take him a little more seriously.

Given the arms buildup in Venezuela and also Brazil, the BBC also published an article this week asking "Could war erupt in arms spree LatAM?"

Given this extra context, it brings us back to the natural gas exports between Venezuela and Colombia. Even though Venezuela has abundant natural gas, the country has not yet developed a sufficient infrastructure to exploit it. For this reason, they signed a contract with Colombia to import natural gas through 2011. The suggestion has been made to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe that he suspend export of natural gas to Venezuela as a form of retaliation in response to Chávez freezing trade between their countries.

So what do you think?

Is it possible that the Uribe administration is testing Venezuela's response to a suspension of gas exports using the excuse of "maintenance" as a concealed threat? Or would that be reading too much into the situation? And is there really legitimate concern that a war is brewing over energy and political loyalities in Latin America?

Photo by openDemocracy via Flickr