President Hugo Chavez is warning Colombia against any U.S. military base near its border with Venezuela, though neither Colombia nor the United States have publicly suggested such a plan.

Chavez said in a televised speech Wednesday that “it’s good news” that Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos had denied that a U.S. base could be set up in the coastal La Guajira region.

There has been speculation in some news media that a base in the area might replace a U.S. drug-monitoring operation at Manta in Ecuador, which President Rafael Correa says he’ll close next year.

Chavez warned that any such plan would force Venezuela to revive a decades-old territorial conflict by staking a claim to the La Guajira region.

“We will not allow the Colombian government to give La Guajira to the empire,” Chavez said, referring to the U.S. “Colombia is launching a threat of war at us.”

Colombian Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo said Thursday: “I don’t know the origin of the information that President Chavez received saying that a military base was going to be established in La Guajira.

Washington’s ambassador to Colombia, William Brownfield, said in a recent newspaper interview that Colombia might be considered as the site for a U.S. drug base if the Manta base is closed, but he did not mention La Guajira.

Diplomatic relations between Caracas and Bogota have been rocky for months. They worsened last week when Colombia unveiled documents allegedly showing that Chavez sought to arm and finance Colombian rebels. Chavez denies the accusations.