Venezuelan police captured a leader of a Colombia-linked paramilitary force, the interior minister announced Saturday amid sky-high military tensions between the South American neighbors.

Magaly Janeth Moreno Vega was captured Thursday by Venezuelan police in Maracaibo near the countries' northern border, said Interior Minister Tareck El Aissami, describing the 39-year-old wanted by Interpol as the "paramilitary chief" of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

"She is nicknamed… 'The Pearl' within the AUC" and "handles extremely important information," El Aissami said.

Bogota, however, promptly hailed her arrest, vowing to seek her extradition from Venezuela to be tried for various crimes in her native Colombia.

The AUC claims it took up arms to fight leftist rebels that have waged a decades-long insurgency in Colombia, but it also stands accused of having executed thousands of civilians.

El Aissami said Moreno Vega was, along with a colleague, in charge of "relations between the AUC and Colombian security forces, that is, the DAS (the Colombian intelligence agency), army and police."

The minister called Moreno Vega a "confidante" of former Colombian attorney general Luis Camilo Osorio Isaza, the current ambassador to Mexico, and said the arrest was evidence of "aggression" against Venezuela.

Speaking on state television VTV, El Aissami accused Colombian President Alvaro Uribe of "institutional and moral decay" for his government's ties to paramilitary groups that "attack our people, and threaten peace and order."

The arrest comes amid rising tensions in the region, which surged when Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez suspended diplomatic relations with Colombia, a key US ally in South America, on July 28.

Earlier this month, Chavez warned his nation to "prepare for war," while Colombia ratcheted up the unease on Friday when it warned that its forces were on "maximum alert" and prepared to defend against any attack.

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, a Chavez ally, commented that the crisis stemmed less from Chavez's war warning than from a recent US-Colombia agreement granting the US military access to seven Colombian bases.

Tensions also spiked Thursday when Venezuelan troops blew up two footbridges across the Venezuela-Colombia border.

Caracas said the bridges were destroyed because they were being used by drug traffickers and smugglers.

earlier related report

Colombia says its military on 'maximum alert'
Bogota (AFP) Nov 20, 2009 –

Colombia warned Friday that its forces were on "maximum alert" and were prepared to defend against any attack, amid rising tensions with neighboring Venezuela.

Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva issued the warning after a meeting of the country's national security council in Arauca, a city on the eastern border with Venezuela.

He said President Alvaro Uribe and the military forces of Colombia were intent on remaining calm "because they know there are provocative forces on the border that must be avoided at all cost."

But this "does not mean that we are not prepared or are not on maximum alert to prevent any aggression against Colombia, against Colombians or against our territory."

Uribe's national security council met for five hours in Arauca with military and police commanders in the border area a day after Bogota charged that Venezuelan troops had blown up two footbridges across the border in northeastern Colombia.

Silva said the destruction of the bridges was an aggression against the civilian population.

"Those bridges were built more than 30 years ago, it was infrastructure built to bring the community together, to work together," he said.

Venezuela said Thursday the bridges were destroyed because they were being used by drug traffickers and smugglers.

The two neighbors have long been at odds, but tensions have sharpened in recent months over a US-Colombian agreement giving the US military access to seven Colombian bases.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on July 28 suspended diplomatic relations with Colombia and earlier this month warned his nation to "prepare for war."

Colombia responded by lodging 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 a border river's 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.

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