Reconciliation in sight?
Ecuador and Colombia have finally made progress towards restoring diplomatic ties. On 10 June it was announced that the Ecuadorean and Colombian foreign ministers, María Isabel Salvador and Fernando Araújo, will meet at the end of June for the first time since Ecuador severed relations at the beginning of March.
The announcement of the foreign ministers meeting follows a series of encounters in Panama, Lima and Washington between deputy foreign ministers from the two countries as well as between high-level military officials. The first achievement of these meetings, which were mediated by the Organization of American States (OAS), was an agreement on 6 June by the presidents of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, and Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, to re-establish diplomatic relations (though only between chargés d'affaires) at the request of former US president, Jimmy Carter. Ecuador severed diplomatic relations on 3 March after Colombia launched an air raid on a Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) camp two days earlier, near Angostura. The attack killed the Farc's number two, Raúl Reyes, along with 25 other people including four Mexican students and one Ecuadorean, Franklin Aisalla.
One of the biggest obstacles preventing the OAS from reaching an agreement between the two governments has been Ecuador's demand that Colombia pay compensation for the damage caused by the raid. Araújo asserted on 3 June that Colombia would not pay compensation for carrying out an attack on what it considers legitimate terrorist targets.
The restoration of ties has also been complicated by acrimonious exchanges between the two governments, which have centred on laptops reportedly confiscated from Reyes's camp by the Colombian military after the raid. Various documents on these computers link Correa's government and that of Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez to the Farc, though both presidents deny any such collaboration. Interpol authenticated the files at the behest of the Colombian government but, as President Correa has pointed out, this does not prove the veracity of their content. Ecuador has requested an OAS investigation into the files.
One of the allegations made by Uribe regarding the so-called 'Interpol files' involves retired Ecuadorean colonel, Jorge Brito, who was accused of receiving US$100,000 from the Farc as a contribution to Correa's presidential campaign. On 4 June Brito officially denied the claim, telling press he believes the allegations are a result of his criticism of the US-sponsored Plan Colombia. He had participated in a citizen's committee monitoring the effects of the anti-drugs initiative on Ecuador, which has included the aerial spraying of coca crops in the border area using a glyphosate-based herbicide, for which Ecuador is currently suing Colombia before the International Court of Justice.
- Manta
On 7 June the US ambassador in Bogotá, William Brownfield, said that Washington is awaiting official confirmation of the Ecuadorean government's decision not to renew the US lease on the military air base in Manta. The 10-year lease is due to expire in 2009, and President Correa has said it will not be renewed. In that case, Brownfield said, the US will consider various locations for the base, including the recently re-certified air base at Palanquero in central Colombia. The base was decertified by the US in 2003 due to a “lack of transparency" in the investigation into a 1998 air raid on the village of Santo Domingo which killed 17 civilians, including six children.