Relations between Colombia and Ecuador, sundered by Colombia's attack
on a Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia camp inside Ecuador on 1 March
2008, are getting even worse. Colombia is now claiming that it has corroborating
evidence that President Rafael Correa's successful election campaign in 2006 was
backed by the Farc. The other row is over trade barriers. Ecuador is accusing
Colombian exporters of exploiting the advantage their weaker currency gives them
in Ecuador's dollarised economy.
Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa claims that the corroborating evidence,
from another video retrieved from a computer seized by the Colombian authorities
is a fabrication. The Colombian government seems pretty sure of itself. On 19
July it gave copies of the video to the Organization of American States (OAS)
and Interpol.
On the video one of the Farc's seven-person leadership group, Jorge Briceño
Suarez (alias Mono Jojoy), states, as he reads what the Colombian press has
termed the last will and testament from the Farc's founder, Manuel Marulanda,
that the Farc made contributions to Correa's 2006 presidential campaign.
Briceño's statement is the first time a senior Farc figure has said, apparently,
that the group financed Correa.
The OAS secretary general, Jose Insulza said that the video warranted further
investigation. So did a former Colombian president, Ernesto Samper. He called
for the Colombian government to send a copy to Ecuador. Lucio Gutiérrez, a
former president whom the Farc says entertained its representative when he was
president (2003 to 2005) and who lost to Correa in the most recent presidential
elections on 26 April, immediately called on Correa to resign and face
prosecution. The Colombian government finally sent the video to Ecuador on 21
July.
Correa dismisses the “evidence" as another attempt by right wingers to try to
destabilise his government and all progressive governments in the region. Correa
said, carefully, that he personally had nothing to do with the Farc. He claimed
that he could just as easily say that there was evidence that President Alvaro
Uribe was financed by right wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers.
Colombia's national TV networks broadcast the video on 17 July and it is now
available on YouTube. In it, Briceño appears to be addressing Farc troops
following the death of the group's founding leader, Manuel Marulanda, on 26
March 2008. In the video, apparently recorded on 27 March 2008, Briceño reads a
letter from Marulanda which refers to the seizure of a lap top in the 1 March
2008 attack on the camp inside Ecuador. The letter acknowledges that the seizure
revealed various Farc secrets, including “aid in dollars" given to Correa's
campaign and “subsequent talks with his emissaries, including some agreements".
Colombia's attorney general, Mario Iguarán, said that the video was found by
police on the computer of a Farc operative, known as “Adela", who was arrested
in Bogotá in late May 2009.
On the trade side, Ecuador has slapped new import taxes on 1,346 'luxury'
items, imported from Colombia. These include cars, clothing, alcoholic drinks,
pet food, makeup, ceramics and others. The bulk (89%) will be taxed at between
20% and 30%. Under Andean Community (CAN) rules, member states can take
temporary measures to address exchange-rate derived trade imbalances.
On 8 July Ecuador's attorney general, Washington Pesántez, applied for an
Interpol 'red notice' requesting the provisional arrest (with a view to
extradition) of the former Colombian defence minister, Juan Manuel Santos, for
his alleged responsibility for the death of an Ecuadorean citizen in the 1 March
2008 bombing of a Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) camp inside
Ecuadorean territory. Interpol has not granted the warrant so a provincial court
in Sucumbíos, Ecuador, has issued a local arrest warrant for Santos, on murder
charges.
