Ecuador's Government Confirms Rumors That Some Officials Are Linked To Colombia's Narco Rebels (FARC)

Members of Ecuador's Army Elite Force inspect a clandestine FARC base camp found while patrolling the border with Colombia in the Amazon province of Sucumbios on January 31, 2009. Rodrigo Buendia / AFP / Getty

Ecuador Officials Linked to Colombia Rebels -- Time Magazine

Several former officials of the Ecuadorian government had ties with Colombia's Marxist guerrillas, a commission named by President Rafael Correa conceded Tuesday. The announcement is sure to stir up new questions about how deeply South America's political left, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, has aided a rebel force condemned worldwide as drug traffickers and terrorists. And it raises the risk, said the commission's coordinator, Francisco Huerta, that Ecuador is "becoming a narco-democracy."

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My Comment: When I first heard of this commission, I expected a whitewash .... I was wrong. There are still questions that need to be asked (and answered), but the concern should still focus on stopping FARC from using Ecuador as a staging ground for its attacks against Colombian forces, and as a safe haven for the production of cocaine.

Tensions Linger Between Colombia And Ecuador

The Colombian raid on the FARC camp across the border in Ecuador in early March elevated diplomatic tensions between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. Photo from Spiegel Online

From L.A. Times:

Ecuador announces tariffs on hundred of Colombian imports, apparently the latest retaliatory measure in the countries' dispute over a 2008 raid into Ecuadorean territory.

Reporting from Bogota, Colombia -- Ecuador today will begin imposing stiff tariffs on hundreds of Colombian imports, the latest round in a festering dispute between the neighbors.

The tariffs could affect at least one-third of the $1.6 billon in annual Colombian exports to Ecuador. The Ecuadorean government said the measure was put in place to compensate for a recent devaluation of the Colombian peso.

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My Comment: The discovery of a FARC - Ecuador connection embarrassed the leadership in Ecuador .... and they have been trying to get back ever since. Expect more economic sanctions and political tit for tats in the months to come.

Colombia-Ecuador Spat Worsens

The Colombian raid on the FARC camp across the border in Ecuador in early March elevated diplomatic tensions between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. Photo from Spiegel Online

From TVNZ:

An Ecuadorean judge ordered the arrest of a former Colombian official involved in a 2008 bombing raid carried out in Ecuador, but Bogota refused to recognise his jurisdiction, intensifying cross-border diplomatic tensions.

In March of last year, then-Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos ordered the bombardment of a rebel camp set up on Ecuador's side of the border. Among those killed in the raid was Raul Reyes, a top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

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My Comment: Colombia embarrassed the Ecuador Government when it was revealed that they had close ties with the FARC guerrillas. This court action is just another tactic from the Ecuadorian Government to divert attention away from themselves and have it put on the Colombian Government. Threatening an official who has a good possibility of becoming the next President of Colombia is not going to sit well in any future Colombian - Ecuador rapprochement.

Ecuadoran Town A Hub for Drug-Running Rebels, Colombia Says

From The Washington Post:

PUERTO NUEVO, Ecuador -- The townspeople in this tiny frontier outpost, deep in the rain forest hugging Colombia's border, say theirs is a quiet, law-abiding community of shopkeepers, subsistence farmers and fishermen.

Authorities in neighboring Colombia, though, contend that Puerto Nuevo is the thriving nerve center for an elite Colombian rebel unit that helps keep a 44-year-old insurgency alive by trafficking cocaine through Ecuador's ports. That unit, the 48th Front, has moved operations here, Colombian officials say, eluding Colombia's U.S.-backed military and creating a nettlesome problem for President Álvaro Uribe's government.

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My Comment: As FARC continues to lose their safe havens in Colombia, they are running to the only areas where they feel safe .... Ecuador being one of them.

Tensions On The Colombia Ecuador Border

(Click To Enlarge)
(Map from Wikimedia)

Diplomatic Breach Widens Between Colombia, Ecuador -- Reuters

BOGOTA (Reuters) - The diplomatic breach between Colombia and Ecuador widened on Saturday when Colombia called on the neighboring country to crack down on rebels using its territory to hold kidnap victims and launch attacks.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a Wall Street favorite and staunch White House ally, said he has information showing that Marxist Colombian guerrillas have camps on Ecuador's side of the border that are also being used to produce cocaine.

Ecuador broke diplomatic relations with Colombia in March after a Colombian raid carried out on Ecuador's side of the border killed Raul Reyes, a top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

On Friday, Uribe canceled an October 14 trip he had planned to a regional diplomatic meeting in Ecuador after that country's president, Rafael Correa, said his government would "never forget the aggressions of Colombia."

"We won't miss you," Correa replied to Uribe on local radio on Saturday.

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My Comment: Colombia is calling out on Ecuador's support for FARC. This support will further strain relations between the two countries .... even opening up the possibility of blowback against Ecuador from Colombia. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa feels confident that there will not be a price to pay for his support of FARC .... I think he is mistaken.