Venezuela has captured a leader of a right-wing Colombian paramilitary group.

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

"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 so that she can be tried for various crimes in her native Colombia.

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 Venezuelan interior 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."

Tension has been rising in the region ever since Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez suspended diplomatic relations with Colombia, a key US ally in South America, on July 28.

SG/SS/HGL