Via the BBC: Ecuador warns Colombia over raid
Ecuador President Rafael Correa has warned of diplomatic tension if an Ecuadorean is found among the victims of a Colombian raid inside Ecuador.
Mr Correa said Ecuador would not forgive the murder of Franklin Aisalia, if he had indeed died during the raid on Farc rebels inside Ecuador.
But he said he hoped Colombia would prove this was not the case.
Ecuador has ordered a probe after the man’s family said he died in the raid in which a senior Farc boss was killed.
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“It would be extremely grave if it is proven that a Ecuadorean died,” the president said on Ecuadorean radio. “We will not let this murder go unpunished.”
Correa left the meeting in Santo Domingo over the entire affair with an obvious reluctance to move on. It may well be that the the Aisalia situation is an excuse to find a way to continue to confrontation. However, if the Colombians killed an innocent Ecuadoran that would reignite the crisis in a new guise. At a minimum, it is clear that relations between these two Andean states are hardly warm at the moment.
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March 24th, 2008 at 6:06 am
[...] Here’s a follow-up to a story I noted yesterday: (via the BBC), Ecuadorean death report confirmed Colombia has confirmed that an Ecuadorean was killed when its troops attacked a rebel camp inside the neighbouring state three weeks ago. Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said his body was taken to Colombia after the raid along with that of top leftist Colombian rebel Raul Reyes. […] News that Bogota has confirmed killing an Ecuadorean threatens to plunge the two countries back into diplomatic crisis, and perhaps again put the entire Andean region on a war footing, the BBC’s Jeremy McDermott reports from Colombia. Confirming that an Ecuadorean citizen had been killed, Colombia’s defence ministry said the dead man appeared to have been a member of the Farc who specialised in helping rebels cross into Ecuador to hide. [...]