COLOMBIA-VENEZUELAN DIFFICULTY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 206, 11 September 1901, Page 5

COLOMBIA-VENEZUELAN DIFFICULTY.

News by mail of the revolutions in Colombia and Venezuela, which led to a war between the two States, under date of Curacoa, July 31, states: —

Doctor Gardiras, at the head of 5000 men, has revolted against President Castro, of Venezuela. The insurgents are near San Antonio de Tachira, on the Colombian frontier. The Venezuelan Government has sent 10,000 troops to the scene of the uprising. The situation is grave. Other outbreaks are expected. The whole country is ready to rise against President Castro. Constitutional guarantees have been suspended and complications with Colombia are feared. A dispatch from Colon, Colombia, on the same day, says that on Friday night the revolutionists attacked the towns of Bohio, Gatun and Paraiso, took the town officials prisoners and seized the public funds. A dispatch was received by the Venezuela Consul at New York stating that Dr. Rangel Gardiras had been routed on the Colombian frontier. A battle had been fought between the revolutionists and the 1 Government. The Government had achieved a great victory and Venezuela was at peace. The peace did not last long, however, and advices from Caracas, under date of August. 10th, gave accounts of numerous engagements in the State of Tachira between President Castro's forces and the revolutionists. The Venezuelan casualties, according to Castro's official bulletins, were a general and four Colonels killed and 300 men killed or wounded. On August Bth there was an encounter at Las Cumbres with a second force of revolutionists. NEW YORK, August 5. Diaz Guerrera, agent in this city of the Colombian revolutionists, to-day received information from trusted agents who had. reached Venezuela that a bloody battle was fought at Palo Negro in the latter part of May. The conflict lasted seventeen days. The battle was drawn at the end of that period, the insurgents retiring when their ammunition was exhausted, the Government troops being too badly cut up to pursue the revolutionists.