SAN ANTONIO, Venezuela, (Reuters) – If South  American neighbors Venezuela and Colombia are about to go to  war, you would never guess it on the “Simon Bolivar” bridge.

Trade may be down, but the bustle of cars, motorbikes and  people is still incessant — carrying Venezuelan gasoline one  way, Colombian potatoes the other on the main crossing between  the two nations, named for their shared independence hero.

In “Brotherhood Square” beside the border bridge,  Colombians, Venezuelans and a few cows share a relaxed moment  in the shade. Thousands of people, many with friends and family  members on both sides, cross back and forth each day.
“Look around you. We live off them, they live off us. So  all this talk of war is crazy,” said Janeth Morena, who runs a  supermarket in the town of San Antonio on the Venezuelan side.

But below the hurly-burly of life on the border, there is  deep anxiety over the accusations of spying, violent incidents  and military movements that have increased friction between the  ideologically opposed governments.

The long-running diplomatic dispute took a worrying turn at  the weekend when President Hugo Chavez told his army “to  prepare for war”. That caused uproar in Bogota, where the  government is calling for international censure of Chavez.
The Venezuelan leader later expressed surprise at the  furor, saying he was no warmonger but had to prepare his people  against the risk caused by Colombia’s decision to increase U.S.  access to its military bases.

The row between Washington’s strongest ally in the region,  Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, and its fiercest critic,  Chavez, is more ingrained than earlier spats, analysts say.
Nowhere is the dispute’s impact felt greater than in the  hot, hilly border country.
Despite still frenetic levels of activity, locals say  commerce between San Antonio and Cucuta, the nearest town on  the Colombian side, has actually dropped more than half in the  last few weeks as a result of the political tensions.

The escalation in rhetoric was preceded by a string of  violent incidents, including the shooting to death of two  Venezuelan soldiers, in a region roamed by Colombian  paramilitaries and rebels, and criminal gangs from both sides.