Andean Group - November 2006 (ISSN 1741-4466)

On 24 October the government published its long-term foreign policy objectives, intended to define an international strategy up to the year 2020. The foreign policy plan (Planex) aims to fix Ecuador's strategic interests in the long run, regardless of the actual government in power. It is an ambitious project even if its aims are far from controversial. Given the fragility of Ecuador's democratic institutions, it seems unlikely that a plan dependent on the good will of the country's political classes will prosper. This is particularly true given the wildly divergent, populist rhetoric of the two presidential candidates: Alvaro Noboa and Rafael Correa.

The project includes topics on national defence, emigration, security, commercial and diplomatic relations. Foreign minister Francisco Carrión said Ecuador needed to work towards a non-partisan consensus on how to "consolidate democracy, protect human rights and strengthen sustainable development". It places its main emphasis on Ecuador avoiding involvement in Colombia's internal conflict and protecting the rights of its emigrants.

President Alfredo Palacio, who has just over two months left in office, said "the foreign policy of the state is intimately linked with the domestic policy" and that this is sustained by "the pillars of dignity, independence, sovereignty and the future". Palacio added that the goal of Ecuador in foreign policy should be to strengthen "south-south" cooperation and promote further Andean and Latin American integration.

• The Ecuadorean government summoned Colombia's ambassador to Quito, Carlos Holguí­n, on 21 October to complain about his comments regarding the presence of leaders of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) in Ecuador.The long-standing row between Colombia and Ecuador over whether or not the Farc crosses into Ecuador was reignited by Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe on 20 October the day after a terrorist attack in Bogotá. Uribe accused the Farc's spokesman, Raúl Reyes, of hiding in Ecuador. The next day Holguí­n backed up Uribe's comments, saying that Colombian authorities had intelligence suggesting Reyes was hiding in “Ecuadorean jungles".