Venezuela ? Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez portrayed himself as a man of peace Wednesday, even as he moved tanks and soldiers to the Colombian border in a growing crisis set off by Colombia’s weekend attack on leftist rebels hiding in Ecuadorean territory.

Most of the 9,000 soldiers mobilized by Chavez have reached the border area and are “ready to defend the sacred sovereignty of the homeland” if necessary against Colombia’s U.S.-supported military, the defense minister said. Ecuador said it sent 3,200 soldiers to its border with Colombia on Monday.

Chavez blamed the crisis on the U.S. “empire and its lackeys” – Colombia’s conservative government.