Correa: Colombia's strike ruined hostage release

BY FRANCES ROBLES
Miami Herald, March 6, 2008

High-profile hostage Ingrid Betancourt was going to be freed this month thanks to contacts with slain Colombian rebel leader Raúl Reyes, but a Colombian military strike against him botched her liberation, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said Thursday in Nicaragua.

After Correa's announcement Thursday afternoon, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia.

''We are breaking off relations because of the political terrorism being carried out by the government of [Colombian President] Alvaro Uribe, not because of the Colombian people,'' said Ortega, who during Nicaragua's 1980s civil war often sent troops to attack rebel camps in neighboring Honduras.

Correa visited Nicaragua on his fourth stop in a tour to whip up anti-Uribe fervor in protest of Saturday's cross-border strike by Colombia into Ecuador. The Colombian military strike killed Reyes, a top Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia leader.

In an angry news conference in Managua, Correa said that under Uribe's premise that a government is justified in bombing another in the interest of national security, all of Latin America would be warranted in attacking Colombia. They could start by bombing not just Colombia's Senate, but its presidential palace, long accused of protecting right-wing paramilitary death squads.

''What country on the continent most shelters illegal groups, paramilitaries, guerrillas, narcotraffickers? Colombia!'' Correa said. ``Colombia most shelters what you denounce, Alvaro Uribe. Don't be a hypocrite.''

Ecuador has found itself on the defensive since Saturday's attack, because computers seized at the site revealed that a member of Correa's Cabinet secretly met with Reyes, a leader of a four-decade insurgency that finances terrorism through the drug trade and ransom. Correa said the meeting was to secure the release of Betancourt, and that Uribe was aware of the efforts.

Betancourt and 11 others were going to be released a few at a time beginning this month, he said. Betancourt's husband, Juan Carlos Lecompte, said he believes Correa is telling the truth.

''The times we have thought that her release is coming, something always comes up; there's always a trick, a problem, an obstacle by Uribe,'' he said. ``I'm filled with anguish. France said it, and Ecuador also said it: They killed the person who was the contact who was negotiating the release of the hostages.

``If the FARC decides to play hard . . . they should release Ingrid right now to shut Uribe's mouth and prove that Correa was really after her liberation.''

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told CNN en Español that Uribe had no information that Ecuador was holding talks for a possible hostage release.

Correa's allegation was also a blow to the families of other hostages held by the FARC, who hold out hope that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will be able to negotiate more releases, despite Reyes' killing.

''Uribe does not want the hostages freed,'' said Jo Rosano, whose son Marc Gonsalves, an American defense contractor, has been held for five years. 'Uribe will stand right in front of us and say, `I'll do whatever I can,' and then he goes the other way and does whatever he wants. Uribe would just as soon see the hostages dead.''

In a meeting with news directors Thursday, Uribe apologized for bringing troops into Ecuador and said it won't happen again, but he said Ecuador must do a better job of keeping rebels out.

''What does one do when bandits are shooting from the other side and the government doesn't do anything?'' Uribe asked, according to The Associated Press. ``It's my job to defend 43 million Colombians.

''I accept that it will not happen again,'' Uribe said. ``We will not repeat these operations if they guarantee they will not shelter them.''

Santos, the defense minister, said the military has documented 39 cases in which Colombia was attacked by rebels firing from Ecuador. In 2005, rebels in Ecuador launched an assault on an isolated army base in the southern town of Teteyé, killing 22 soldiers.

In the past 12 months, 16 communiqués about FARC incursions have been sent through the binational border commission, Santos said in a speech to Congress. Another eight diplomatic notes were sent to the Foreign Ministry warning of a FARC presence, he said, the most recent Feb. 25.

Santos said they either deny it or ignore the communiqués.

''What has been Ecuador's attitude before these communications?'' Santos asked. 'On the one hand, an answer like saying, `This isn't true. We don't accept that.' And they become belligerent. Or the other answer is simply to maintain silence.

''Deep down the debate is why do they allow terrorist groups to attack our people from their territory?'' he said.

Santos said Ecuador complains that Colombia does not control the border, but whenever Colombia proposes a joint operation, Ecuador refuses.

Ecuador's Defense Ministry says it has dismantled 117 FARC guerrilla camps in the past four years, including 47 last year alone. Eleven guerrillas were arrested last year, and five FARC rebels were captured in Ecuador near the border Thursday, the country announced.

''Ecuador is preparing all the proof to demonstrate we have constantly guarded our borders and have not protected the FARC,'' Ecuadorean Foreign Minister María Isabel Salvador said at a news conference in Miami.

Correa also criticized a video of the operation released by the Colombian Defense Ministry, which showed the troops stayed in Ecuador until the next day and its prosecutors carefully cataloged evidence.

''Are they crazy?'' Correa said. ``That shows this was not an incursion -- it was an invasion.''

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to consider putting Venezuela on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. She also wants Ecuador investigated.

Such a designation would have minimal impact on Venezuela, because it would allow the country to continue selling oil to the United States. However, the effect would be severe on Ecuador, which gets U.S. aid and special market access for its products.

Miami Herald Washington correspondent Pablo Bachelet, El Nuevo Herald staff writer Juan Carlos Chávez and special correspondent Jenny Carolina González in Bogotá contributed to this report.

"To the Ecuadorian People" - message from the Coordinadora Continental Bolivariana

TO THE ECUADORIAN PEOPLE
from the Coordinadora Continental Bolivariana

The military invasion in the early hours of Saturday March 1, 2008 into Ecuadorian territory, a fact unprecedented in the country's history, expresses the desperate and militarist position of Bush and Uribe, to introduce the blood and fire of Plan Colombia and force Ecuador to become part of it. Moreover, it torpedoes the humanitarian campaign led by President Hugo Chavez and by the command of the FARC to release several prisoners and bring peace to Colombia.

This assault on the sovereignty and the crime committed, rather than legitimising and strengthening the war plan Uribe, has created a great social alliance from across the continent against the Project led from Washington, to control the region and appropriate its large natural and economicresources.

The CCB recognises and salutes the dignified position of President Rafael Correa, and demands from the governments and peoples of Latin America an alliance in defence of sovereignty. In this sense, we condemn the sad and despicable attempt of the Uribe government, which is linked to drug trafficking, as demonstrated by Newsweek magazine, to link officials from the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela, with the FARC. Why not argue this in order to invade Ecuador?

And we began to see in full action a government in total servitude to Washington (and which receives more military aid from the USA than anyone, after Israel and Egypt), which only seeks to replicate on our continent, under its auspices and stewardship, the role that Israel plays as persistent offender against its Lebanese and Palestinian neighbours in the Middle East.

The bellicose and inhumane positions of the spokesmen of the White House, who supported the invasion, confirm certain claims that the attack was prepared for weeks, and that it would have benefited from specialised information provided by the Manta Base and the Tres Cruces Base in Colombia, leaving no doubt that it was Imperialism who led the brutal attack. Under these conditions, what's keeping the Manta base in the hands of our aggressors? The government of President Correa must advance the suspension of the Agreement of the Manta base, while denouncing and ignoring all international treaties and secrets that previous governments have implemented to allow the use of our territory for the military and conspiratorial purposes of the gringos against our own people.

It should not be called a hoax. It is not now an action to topple Chavez or create problems for Correa, but a long-term conspiracy orchestrated by the United States aimed at seizing the oil of Venezuela and Ecuador, Bolivia's gas and the biodiversity of the Amazon. Using Uribe as the mercenary who does the dirty work, the United States can explode in a war that it might not even have to intervene in directly.

The CCB asks that the government of President Correa guarantee the life and physical integrity of the guerrillas of the FARC who survived the military attacks, and to grant them political asylum, as a token of his position in favour of the humanitarian agreement. Failure to do so and to hand them to Colombia, would be like dictating their death sentences.

Finally, we join the call to actively participate in the marches for the defense of national sovereignty, peace and the rejection of paramilitarism and state terrorism driven by the Plan Colombia.

All out on March 6 at 11. am in Foch plaza and at 6pm in Av. De los Shyris.

Bolivarian Continental Coordination - Ecuador Chapter

Ecuador Tax Chief: Coca Cola Unit Now Paying Back Taxes

QUITO -(via CNNmoney.com) March 5 - Ecuador Bottling Company Corp., a unit of the Coca Cola Co. (KO), has started to pay back taxes the government says it is owed, the chief of the Internal Revenue Service, or SRI, Carlos Marx Carrasco, said Wednesday.

"The company failed to pay around $20 million between 2000 and 2004, but it is changing its behavior and it has started to pay," Carrasco told Dow Jones Newswires.

According to Carrasco, the company paid less than it should have in income taxes and for a consumption tax.

Initially, the company didn't accept the debt and began legal proceedings, but it has changed its decision and has begun to pay, Carrasco said.

The company wasn't available to comment.

Separately, the SRI on Tuesday closed for seven days Industrial Molinera, a company owned the banana tycoon and former presidential candidate Alvaro Noboa.

The company is accused of not giving information required to SRI, and according to Carrasco if the information is not delivered to SRI, the company could be closed permanently.

The SRI has also accused a local unit of America Movil (AMX) of paying fewer taxes than it should have. According to a special audit, this company owes around $150 million to the SRI.

Ecuador to OAS: Colombia's Aggression

Washington, Mar 4 (Prensa Latina) Ecuador summons members of the Organization of American States OAS in this capital to condemn the aggression of Colombia to its territory, and asked for an urgent meeting of Foreign Ministers to analyze the crisis.

When taking part in an OAS extraordinary session to debate the subject, Ecuadorian Minister of Foreign Relations Maria Isabel Salvador requested an urgent meeting of consultation with FM for March 11.

The head of diplomacy of that South American country denounced the violation of the territory and the sovereignty of a State perpetrated by another State.

Ecuador broke diplomatic relations with Colombia after the incursion of Bogota army, which culminated with the death of the guerrilla leader Raul Reyes and other 20 people.

That attack was a deliberate act that attempts against the international right and the bilateral agreements, thus Colombia must be considered an aggressor country, Salvador expressed.

Office of inspector in Ecuador Chevron pollution suit burglarized

via money.aol.ca, 03/04/08

QUITO, Ecuador - A court-appointed engineer in charge of determining whether Chevron Corp. caused environmental damage in the Ecuadoran jungle said Wednesday his offices were burglarized and three computers with information about the case stolen.

Richard Cabrera said his Quito office was broken into. Two desktop computers, a laptop, two printers and a digital camera were missing after the break-in, he said.

"It may be common criminals," he said.

"I don't blame any of the parties in this matter, that we'll leave" to the authorities.

Cabrera is preparing a report for a class-action suit filed against the San Ramon, Calif.-based company by 30,000 jungle settlers and natives. They are seeking $6 billion in cleanup costs for the jungle region where Texaco Petroleum Co. spent three decades extracting oil before it merged with Chevron in 2001.

Cabrera said he plans to hand in his final report on the alleged environmental damage in the last two weeks of January. The burglary "will not be an obstacle to my work," he said.

"I'm moving forward."

The suit alleges billions of litres of toxic wastewater were dumped in the jungle. Chevron denies the allegations and says Texaco, which ended its operations in 1992, followed Ecuadoran environmental laws in a $40-million cleanup, which the government approved in 1998.

Chevron has said Cabrera, who was appointed in June, is unqualified and the company has not received a fair trial in the Andean country, where President Rafael Correa has openly backed the plaintiffs.

A spokeswoman at Chevron's office in Ecuador said the company had no comment on the burglary. She spoke on condition of anonymity.

In November, Cabrera filed a letter with the court saying: "My life and the lives of my family, the lives of the technicians and other assistants in the report are in grave danger."

He said he felt "under pressure, watched."

California-based environmental organization Amazon Watch called on Chevron to publicly denounce "this apparent harassment."

"This is a deeply disturbing incident," said Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch's executive director said in an e-mailed statement.

Police in Quito confirmed the robbery report. The judge hearing the case, German Yanez, said he was unaware of the robbery.

After wending through U.S. federal courts for a decade, the legal battle shifted in 2003 to a makeshift courtroom in the Ecuadoran village Lago Agrio. A ruling is expected sometime next year but the appeals process could last up to three years after that.

RAFAEL CORREA - REFLECTIONS BY COMRADE FIDEL

RAFAEL CORREA

REFLECTIONS BY COMRADE FIDEL

via CubaNews

I remember when he visited us, months before the electoral campaign when he was thinking of running as a candidate for the Presidency of Ecuador. He had been the Minister of the Economy in the government of Alfredo Palacio, a surgeon with professional prestige who had also visited us as Vice President, before becoming the President in an unexpected situation that took place in Ecuador. He had been receptive to a program of ophthalmologic operations that we offered him as a form of cooperation. There were good relations between our two governments.

A while earlier Correa had resigned from the Ministry of the Economy. He was unhappy with what he called administrative corruption instigated by Oxy, a foreign company that explored and invested important sums of money, but was holding on to four out of every five barrels of oil that it extracted. He didn’t talk about nationalization, but about taxing them heavily; these taxes would be assigned in advance to specific social investments. He had already approved the measures and a judge had declared them to be valid.

Since the word “nationalize” had not been mentioned, I thought he felt apprehensive about the concept. It didn’t surprise me because he had graduated as an economist with much acclaim from a well-known U.S. university. I didn’t bother getting into much depth; I bombarded him with questions from the arsenal accumulated in the struggle against the Latin American foreign debt in 1985 and of Cuba’s own experience.

There are high-risk investments that use sophisticated technology and that no small nation like Cuba or Ecuador could take on.

Since this was already in 2006 and we were determined to promote the energy revolution, --ours was the first country on the planet to proclaim this as a vital issue for humankind-- I had dealt with the subject particularly emphatically. But I halted, as I understood one of his reasons.

I related to him the conversation I had had a while ago with the president of REPSOL, a Spanish company. This company, associated with other international companies, would undertake an expensive operation to drill the ocean floor, more than 2000 meters down, using sophisticated technology, in Cuba’s jurisdictional waters. I asked the head of the Spanish company: How much is an exploratory well worth? I ask you this because we would like to participate, even if it is for one percent of the total cost and we would like to know what you want to do with our oil.

Correa, for his part, had told me that for every one hundred dollars taken out by the companies, only twenty remained in the country; it didn’t even get into the budget, he said; it was left in a separate fund for just about anything other than improving the living conditions of the people.

I abolished the fund, he told me, and directed 40 percent towards education and health, technological and highway development, and the rest towards buying back the debt if the price was favorable, and if not, investing it in something more useful. Before, every year we had to buy a portion of that debt which was becoming more expensive.

In the case of Ecuador –he added– oil policies verged on treason against the country. Why do they do it? I asked him. Is it because they are afraid of the Yankees or due to unbearable pressure? He answered: If they have a Minister of the Economy who tells them privatization would improve efficiency, you can just imagine. I didn’t do that.

I encourage him to go on and he calmly explains. The foreign company Oxy is one that has broken its contract and according to Ecuadorian law it requires an expiration date. It means that the oil field operated by this company must go over to the State, but because of Yankee pressure the government does not dare to occupy it; a situation is created which is not contemplated by the legislation. The law just states that an expiration date must be set, and nothing more. The judge at the court of first instance at that moment was the president of PETROECUADOR and he made it happen. I was a member of PETROECUADOR and they called an emergency meeting to expel him from his position. I didn’t attend and they couldn’t fire him. The judge declared the expiration date.

What did the Yankees want? I asked him. They wanted a fine, he quickly replied. Listening to him I realized that I had underestimated him.

I was in a hurry because of a great number of commitments. I invited him to sit in on a meeting with a large group of highly qualified Cuban professionals who were leaving for Bolivia to be part of the Medical Brigade; it had staff for more than 30 hospitals including 19 surgical positions that could do more than 130 thousand ophthalmologic operations per year; all in the manner of free cooperation. Ecuador possesses three similar centers with six ophthalmologic positions.

Dinner with the Ecuadorian economist took place into the morning hours of February 9, 2006. There were scarcely any view points that I didn’t cover. I even spoke to him about the very harmful mercury that modern industry scatters throughout the planet’s oceans. Consumerism was of course a subject that I emphasized; the high cost of the kilowatt/hour in the thermoelectric plants; the differences between socialist and communist forms of distribution, the role of money, the trillions spent on advertising which people had no choice but to pay for in the prices of goods, and the studies made by university social brigades who discovered, among the 500 thousand families in the capital, the number of elderly folk lived alone. I explained the stage of university courses for all that we were involved in.

We became friends even though he perhaps received the impression that I was self-sufficient. If that happened, it was truly not my intention.

Since that time I have observed his every step: the electoral process, focusing on the concrete problems of Ecuadorians and the people’s victory over the oligarchy.

In the history of our peoples there are many things that bring us together. Sucre was always a highly admired figure, along with The Liberator Bolivar; as Marti said, what he hasn’t done in America remains to be done, and as Neruda exclaimed, Bolivar awakens every hundred years.

Imperialism has just committed a monstrous crime in Ecuador. Deadly bombs were dropped in the early morning hours on a group of men and women who, almost without exception, were asleep. That has been deduced by all the official reports right from the beginning. Any concrete accusations against that group of human beings do not justify that action. They were Yankee bombs, guided by Yankee satellites.

Absolutely no one has the right to kill in cold blood. If we accept that imperial method of warfare and barbarism, Yankee bombs directed by satellites could fall on any group of Latin American men and women, in the territory of any country, war or no war. The fact that this happened on undisputed Ecuadorian territory is an aggravating circumstance.

We are not an enemy of Colombia. Previous reflections and exchanges demonstrate how much of an effort we have made, both the current President of the Council of State of Cuba and I, to abide by a declared policy of principles and peace, proclaimed years ago in our relations with the rest of the Latin American states.

Today, with everything at risk, we have not been transformed into belligerent people. We are determined supporters of that unity among peoples which Marti named Our America.

If we keep quiet we shall become accomplices. Today they would like to have our friend, the economist and President of Ecuador Rafael Correa, seated in the dock; this is something we couldn’t even conceive that morning of February 9, 2006. At that time it seemed that my imagination was capable of embracing all kinds of dreams and risks, but never anything like what has occurred in the early morning of Saturday March 1, 2008.

Correa has in his hands the few survivors and the rest of the bodies. The two which are missing prove that Ecuadorian territory was occupied by troops that crossed the border. Now he can cry out like Emile Zola: J’accuse!

Fidel Castro Ruz

March 3, 2008.

8:36 p.m.

Ecuador´s Correa on LatAm Tour

Quito, Mar 4 (Prensa Latina) Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa started Tuesday a tour of five Latin American countries to denounce Colombia´s military aggression to this country.

Correa will visit Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Panama and the Dominican Republic, to explain the position of Ecuador after Colombia launched a cross-border raid against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The Ecuadoran government broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia, after Bogota accused its neighbour of colluding with the guerrilla FARC.

In Lima, Peru, Correa will meet Tuesday with his Peruvian counterpart Alan Garcia, who condemned Monday the violation of the Ecuadorian sovereignty by the Colombian military forces.

On Wednesday, the Ecuadoran head of State will fly to Brasilia, to hold talks with his Brazilian colleague Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Later, Correa will go to Venezuela and Panama, and then to Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, to attend the Rio Group meeting on Friday.

The Ecuadoran leader intends to denounce the deliberate violation of his country´s national sovereignty by the Colombian military forces that bombed a provisional guerrilla FARC camp in Ecuadoran territory.

Correa also slammed Monday what he called shameless attitude by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who, he said, tries now to turn the attention from the violation of Ecuador"s sovereignty with unfounded information.

The Ecuadoran president will request an international mission to visit the cross-border raided area, in the Amazonian province of Sucumbios, to confirm the blatant violation of Ecuador´s national territory.

Ecuador´s Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvador travelled to Washington Monday night to attend a meeting of the Organization of American States.

Salvador will explain her country"s position regarding the dangerous events occurred Saturday in the bordering zone.

Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America

CounterPunch, March 4, 2008

A Response to the Murder of Raúl Reyes in Ecuador

Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America

By JAMES J. BRITTAIN
and R. JAMES SACOUMAN

A few weeks after the Ecuadorian and Venezuelan state called on the Colombian government to respect the need for peace and negotiation with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP), the administration of Álvaro Uribe Vélez (2002-2010) supported an extensive armed air and land assault against the insurgency movement--not within Colombia's borders but rather on the sovereign territory of Ecuadorian soil.

On 1 March, 2008 the Colombian state, under the leadership of Uribe and Vice-President Francisco Santos Calderón (and his cousin Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos), illegally deployed a military campaign within Ecuador, which resulted in the deaths of Raúl Reyes, Julian Conrado, and fifteen other combatants associated with the FARC-EP. Such actions are a clear display of the (US-backed) Colombian state's open negation of international codes of conduct, law, and social justice.

The actions of Saturday 1 March took place days before a major international demonstration scheduled for 6 March, 2008. Promoted by The National Movement of Victims of State-Sponsored Crimes (MOVICE), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and countless social justice-based organizations, March 6th has been set as an international day of protest against those tortured, murdered, and disappeared by the Colombian state, their allies within the paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) and the newly reformed Black Eagles. Recently, President Uribe's top political adviser, José Obdulio Gaviria, proclaimed that the protest and protesters should be criminalized. In addition, paramilitaries in the southwestern department of Nariño (not far from where the illegal incursions were carried out in Ecuador), have threatened to attack any organization or person associated with the activities scheduled for Thursday.

It is believed that the Uribe and Santos administration is utilizing the slaughter of Comandante Raúl Reyes and others as a method to deter activists and socially conscious peoples within and outside Colombia from participating in the March 6th events. Numerous state-controlled or connected media outlets, such as El Tiempo (which has long-standing ties to the Santos family), have been parading photographs of the bullet ridden and mutilated corpse of Raúl Reyes throughout the country's communications mediums. Such propaganda is clearly a tool to psychologically intimidate those preparing to demonstrate against the atrocities perpetrated by the state over the past seven years.

Over the past two months, numerous researchers, scholars, and lawyers have supported the call to declare the FARC-EP a legitimate force fighting against the corrupt Colombian state. In January 2008, Ecuador's Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvador argued that the FARC-EP should no longer be depicted as a terrorist organization. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez too announced that the FARC-EP are far from a terrorist force but are rather a real army, which occupies Colombian territory and shares in a Bolivarian vision for a new Latin America. Mexican deputy Ricardo Cantu Garza also has promoted the recognition of the FARC-EP as a belligerent force legitimately fighting against a corrupt and unequal sociopolitical system. As prominent US attorney Paul Wolf argued,

the FARC-EP are a belligerent army of national liberation, as evidenced by their sustained military campaign and sovereignty over a large part of Colombian territory, and their conduct of hostilities by organized troops kept under military discipline and complying with the laws and customs of war, at least to the same extent as other parties to the conflict. Members of the FARC-EP are therefore entitled to the rights of belligerents under international law there is no rule of international law prohibiting revolution, and, if a revolution succeeds, there is nothing in international law prohibiting the acceptance of the outcome, even though it was achieved by force.

From Copenhagen to Caracas, numerous state officials have denounced the description of the FARC-EP as a terrorist organization. Progressive officials and administrations in Mexico, Ecuador, and Venezuela have rather opted for the status of belligerent or irregular forces to more accurately depict the FARC-EP domestic and geo-political stance. Disturbingly, in the face of this evidence and the FARC-EP's consistent promotion for a humanitarian prisoner exchange and peace negotiations with the state in a demilitarized zone in southwestern Colombia, the Uribe and Santos administration has moved ever farther away from supporting an end to the civil war within Colombia by opting for systemic violence.

Over the past several years, different aspects of the FARC-EP's real social, political, and cultural activities for progressive social change have been censored or marginalized by the private press or governments in support of the Colombian state. Nevertheless, after researching the FARC-EP and the country of Colombia for years, Garry Leech argued that "while there is little doubt regarding the global reach of terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda, there is no evidence that the FARC is anything but one of the armed actors in Colombia's long and tragic domestic conflict".

In actuality, the FARC-EP are actors within the strategic confines of Colombian society that aim their directives at domestic social change. In light of such realities, how can this insurgency be a terrorist threat to external nation-states? Coletta A. Youngers responds to this question by describing how

the U.S. government now views the Latin American region almost exclusively through the counterterrorist lens, though the region poses no serious national security threat to the United States little evidence has been put forward to substantiate such claims, and whatever activity is taking place there appears to be minimal.

While Youngers does not trivialize its revolutionary tactics, she clearly argues that the FARC-EP cannot be correctly framed within the concept and rhetoric of global terrorism. Youngers argues that the insurgency is not a direct political threat to administrations within the United States, Canada, the European Union and any other foreign nation-state in the fact that the FARC-EP activities "are targeted inward, not outward," hence, "applying the terrorism concept to these groups negates their political projects".

Characterizing the FARC-EP as a foreign terrorist organization dramatically alters the dynamics of the peace process in favour of a killer state. Stipulating that the FARC-EP is terrorist results in the inability for legal peace negotiations to take place between the FARC-EP and any government that subscribes to the categorization. Promoting the FARC-EP (and their supporters) as terrorists "puts them on the list of targets to be assaulted by the US military machine" and "thus subject to total war," according to James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer. The terminology of terrorism is perfect for imperialist ideology and expansionism. It is a very open-ended reference that "allows maximum intervention in all regions against any opposition" and "that any group engaged in opposing militarism, imperialism (so-called "globalization") or local authoritarian regimes could be labelled "terrorist" and targeted", thus legitimizing external invasion or attack.

Internal and external condemnation of the Colombian state has fallen upon the deaf ears of the Uribe and Santos administration. After years of increased violations of civilian human rights, the ongoing suppression of trade-unionism, assassinations of left-of-centre activists and politicians, and a political reality that has witnessed 75 governors, mayors, and Congressional politicians alleged or found guilty of having direct links to the paramilitary--including Vice-President Francisco Santos Calderón and his cousin Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos and President Uribe's brother Santiago and their cousin Senator Mario Uribe--now the Colombian state has deemed it necessary to illegally encroach upon those nations that deviate from their ideological model of political and economic centralization. Not only has the Uribe administration criticized their neighbours but after the actions realized on 1 March, 2008 it is clear that the Colombian state, with the full backing of the United States, will impose its own ideological goals and values, through force, regardless of the democratic rights and privileges of conventional electoral law and procedure.

While the neighbouring states of Ecuador and Venezuela struggle for peace and try to assist the people of Colombia in the quest for an end to the civil war, the Uribe and Santos administration has bypassed judicial realities and governance to impose its own objectives. Careful analysts of the Colombian situation continue to debate whether the Colombian state is pre-fascist or actually fascist. It is certainly neither humane nor actually democratic. The current Colombian state must be transformed, sooner rather than later. Those fighting for peace must condemn the action of this regime. In solidarity, we must protest the policies of the Colombian state and raise our voices in support for a New Colombia which stands for Peace with Social Justice.

James J. Brittain (Assistant Professor) and Jim Sacouman (Professor) are Canadian sociologists at Acadia University in Nova Scotia who have been researching the Colombian civil war and political economy over the past decade. They can be reached at: james.brittain@acadiau.ca

Correa Named Honorary Member of Cuban Economists' Association

Havana, Mar 4 (acn) Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa was made an honorary member of the Cuban Association of Economists and Accountants (ANEC) at the during the opening session of the Tenth International Conference on Globalization and Development Problems that began Monday in Havana.

Fander Falconi, secretary of Planning and Development of Ecuador, presented the conference with a report titled "The first year of the citizens revolution in Ecuador," sent by President Correa, who had to suspend his trip to Cuba.

Other speakers included Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, Foreign Secretary of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences of the Vatican, and Robert Mundell, Nobel Prize for Economics in 1999, according to a Granma report.

A panel comprised of economists Orlando Caputo (Chile), Jan Kregel (US) and Carlos Perez (Argentina) tackled the current international financial crisis and instability.

Presentations continue on Tuesday on several crucial issues and events, many that have worsened since the beginning of the globalization conferences in 1999, known for their plurality and diversity in ideas from which the difficult economic and social problems facing humanity
are discussed.

Cuban Vice Presidents Carlos Lage Davila and Estaban Lazo Hernandez presided over the opening session of the economist's conference involving participants from 42 countries, 21 international organizations, and economists, professors and students from 101 Cuban
municipalities.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa was made an honorary member of the Cuban Association of Economists and Accountants.

Latin America scrambles to defuse crisis in the Andes

By Saul Hudson

CARACAS, March 4 (Reuters) - Latin America scrambled to defuse a three-nation crisis that threatens the region's stability after Venezuela and Ecuador cut diplomatic ties with Colombia and ordered troops to their neighbor's border.

The Organization of the American States, the region's top diplomatic body, will hold a crisis session in Washington on Tuesday to press for a negotiated end to a dispute that erupted after a weekend Colombia raid to kill a rebel inside Ecuador.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa will also start a five-nation tour of the region -- including to leftist ally Venezuela -- to lobby for support against what he calls a premeditated violation of sovereignty.

"This is not a bilateral problem, it's a regional problem," Correa told Mexican television. "Should this set a precedent, Latin America will become another Middle East."

Latin American governments generally lined up to condemn conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe for sending troops and warplanes over the border in an attack on a jungle camp that killed a senior FARC rebel.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former guerrilla and a close leftist ally of Venezuela and Ecuador and who has a territorial dispute with Colombia, accused Uribe of becoming a threat to Latin America.

The region's diplomatic heavyweight, Brazil, demanded Uribe apologize to Correa. It also worked on the crisis with Argentina, whose president will visit Venezuela on Wednesday.

"This conflict ... is beginning to destabilize regional relations," said Marco Aurelio Garcia, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's foreign policy adviser. "We are mobilizing all of Brazil's diplomatic resources and those of other South American capitals to find a lasting solution."

Major powers such as France and the United States, as well as U.S. presidential candidates, also urged diplomacy to defuse the tensions.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has negotiated the release this year of rebel hostages, called the guerrilla leader's death a "cowardly assassination" by a U.S.-backed president who did not want more captives freed.

Chavez and Correa expelled Colombia's diplomats from their capitals on Monday.

Colombia also fueled the tensions by accusing Chavez of funding Latin America's oldest insurgency -- a charge denied by the anti-U.S. president's aides.

Despite the three leaders' brinkmanship and the risk of military missteps, political analysts said a conflict was unlikely on borders that stretch from parched desert through Andean mountains and jungles to the Pacific Ocean.

Chavez, the leader of a growing bloc of Latin American leftist presidents, may fire up his supporters by challenging Uribe but he can ill afford to lose food imports from Colombia as he combats shortages in his OPEC nation, analysts said.

Colombia: Documents show deepening relations between Ecuador's government and rebels

BOGOTA, Colombia, IHT, March 3, 2008: Documents from a computer seized where Colombian commandos killed a senior rebel leader indicate Ecuador's president is deepening relations with Colombia's main guerrilla group, Colombia's police commander said Sunday.

The two documents, copies of which were obtained independently by The Associated Press, were apparently written by the slain rebel commander, Raul Reyes, in the past two months. They are addressed to the high command of his insurgency, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

An Ecuadorean government spokesman called the Colombian claims a lie.

Reyes, 59, was killed early Saturday in a raid at a rebel camp just inside Ecuadorean territory. He was the FARC's public voice and represented it before foreign governments, journalists and other emissaries.

The incursion prompted Eduador's leftist president, Rafael Correa, to order troops to the Colombian border and recall his ambassador from Bogota. Venezuela's leader, Hugo Chavez, announced he was dispatching tanks and thousands of troops to the Colombian border.

"These documents raise the question of what the relation of Ecuador's government is with a terrorist organization," Gen. Oscar Naranjo, the Colombian police commander, told a late-night news conference.

Naranjo said that the documents show without a doubt that Reyes "was developing an agenda with Ecuador." He said Colombia would demand an explanation of Correa for a relationship with the FARC that "in our opinion affects Colombia's national security."

A spokesman for Ecuador's internal security ministry, Edmundo Carrera, accused Naranjo of lying.

"They're trying to cover up what they've done," he told the AP.

One of the documents, a word-processing file dated Jan. 18, said Reyes had met with Ecuador's minister of internal security, Gustavo Larrea, and the two had discussed Correa's "interest in making official relations with the FARC."

It did not specify a date or location for the meeting.

The document says Correa is prepared to make changes in his military leadership, that he refuses to back Colombia in its condemnation of the FARC and that the Ecuadorean president wants to get involved in efforts to secure a prisoner swap between the FARC and the Colombian government. Chavez was leading that effort until Uribe tried to cut him off in November.

It says Ecuador's government considers Uribe "a danger to the region" and says Ecuador would like it if the FARC released one of its hostages — a soldier named Pablo Moncayo who the FARC has held for a decade. Correa would then "provide protection to one of ours" would presumably represents the FARC before Ecuador's government.

Photocopies of the documents were provided to the AP by a senior member of Colombia's security forces, on condition he not be further identified because of their sensitivity.

The official said three notebook computers were found during Saturday's raid and that they contained a wealth of documents that Colombian authorities were only beginning to examine. He said U.S. assistance would be sought in analyzing them.

The official said he did not know whether any of the information in the computers was encrypted.

The other document, dated Feb. 28, says a Correa emissary, in a recent meeting, would like a personal meeting with FARC leaders in Quito, guaranteeing transport and security for them.

The January document says Correa will cancel next year permission for U.S. surveillance planes to use a base at Manta, Ecuador, something he has already announced.

U.S. officials have said they are considering locating such a base in Colombia. The Manta lease runs out next year.

Chevron Accused of “Unethical Attacks” On Court-Appointed Special Master in Ecuador Environmental Trial

Chevron Accused of “Unethical Attacks” On Court-Appointed Special Master in Ecuador Environmental Trial

Quito, Ecuador (February 28) – Representatives of thousands of Ecuadorians suing Chevron are charging the oil giant with “engaging in a pattern of extrajudicial attacks” on a court-appointed special master who is preparing a damages assessment against the company in a historic multi-billion dollar environmental trial in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest.

Chevron’s alleged behavior includes personal harassment and an ad hominem advertising campaign, coinciding with the mysterious theft of case-related files from the court-appointed special master’s office, according to the Amazon Defense Coalition, the organization that represents an estimated 30,000 plaintiffs in the case, including the members of five Amazon indigenous groups.

“Chevron is using extrajudicial influence to undermine the one independent expert who is preparing to tell the truth about Chevron’s damages in Ecuador,” said Julio Prieto, a lawyer on the case, which has been tried in the town of Nueva Loja since late 2003.

Prieto added that Chevron is “engaging in a pattern of vicious, defamatory and unethical attacks” on the special master, an Ecuadorian geologist and environmental expert named Richard Cabrera. Cabrera is working with a multi-disciplinary team of experts to assess the damages, which plaintiffs said could be the most extensive ever for an environmental case, possibly exceeding $10 billion.

A court-appointed special master is designated by a judge to enforce a court order, in this case an order to produce a damages assessment. Attacks against special masters by lawyers are considered attacks on the court itself and often result in disciplinary action.

Chevron’s attacks against Cabrera include the purchase of full-page advertisements in Ecuadorian newspapers suggesting Cabrera is a criminal. Cabrera also has been stalked by a team of 25 Chevron lawyers and private security agents while he does his fieldwork near Chevron’s former production sites in the rainforest. Press releases put out by Chevron mock Cabrera for his middle name, “Stalin.”

Most recently, Chevron has filed a motion with a separate Ecuadorian court seeking to depose Cabrera, an action which the plaintiffs consider illegal. Cabrera has also been the victim of a mysterious robbery of his office from where his files on the case were stolen.

Chevron’s harassment became so grave that the trial judge ordered security agents to keep Chevron representatives away from Cabrera so he could complete his field work without interference or fear of intimidation.

The latest charges follow a series of incidents in 2005 and 2006 that called into question Chevron’s commitment to a fair trial. These included the creation of a false military report written by Chevron lawyers claiming they were going to be kidnapped, death and kidnapping threats against community leaders active in the lawsuit, and the separate robbery of case-related materials from the law offices of Alejandro Ponce, who works with the plaintiffs.

Chevron also admitted in 2006 that it was making payments to Ecuadorian military officials in exchange for “protection” services during the trial. Several uniformed Ecuadorian soldiers have accompanied Chevron’s lawyers to judicial inspection sites, carrying their bags and technical equipment while peering menacingly at members of the local population.

The lawsuit asserts Chevron deliberately dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic waste in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador and abandoned hundreds of open-air toxic waste pits in an area roughly the size of Rhode Island. Thousands of lab tests show the pits have leached toxins into the soil and groundwater, causing cancer rates in the region to spike and threatening the survival of three indigenous groups.

“The evidence clearly documents how Chevron created a cancer pit in the Amazon to save money in its production costs,” said Pablo Fajardo, another Ecuadorian lawyer who himself has been the subject of death threats during the trial.

“For Chevron, it’s all about the dollars,” added Fajardo. “Chevron doesn’t seem to care that our people are dying because of the contamination it deliberately created. The concept of human rights and due process are not considerations with this kind of mentality.”

Chevron claims that it is no longer responsible for the damage because it turned over the oil fields to Ecuador’s government after operating them exclusively from 1964 to 1990. It also claims there no is risk to human health from its dumping, a contention hotly disputed by dozens of independent scientists.

The class action case began in U.S. federal court in 1993, but Chevron has since filed hundreds of motions that have delayed the outcome for years.

Cabrera was appointed special master by Judge German Yanez last July after the parties submitted a combined 250,000 pages of evidence, including 54,000 chemical sampling results. He is expected to turn over his report to the court in late March.

For more information please visit www.texacotoxico.com

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Ecuadorian Government protests assassination of Raul Reyes in Ecuador

Communique of the Government of Ecuador

Quito, March 1, 2008 .- In the early hours of Saturday, March 1, Colombian military aircraft and army troops and police raided Ecuadorian territory, in the province of Sucumbios, approximately 3 kilometres south of the river Putumayo, and after confronting members of the FARC, killed seventeen people, among them senior leaders of that Colombian irregular force. As part of the events, forces of the Colombian State entered the territory of Ecuador, took several bodies and took them to Colombia. Investigations by the Ecuadorian armed forces have succeeded in identifying these facts on the basis of statements of residents of the area and data collected by Ecuadorian military units that arrived hours later to the scene of the incident. The authorities of Ecuador did not know in advance of the Colombian operation nor did they give their permission for it to be conducted or for the force of that country to enter the national territory.

Ecuador has knowledge of the political, legal and social implications of the Colombian conflict, and has deplored the severe impact it has had on society in the neighbouring country for decades, and does not support the violent tactics used by irregular groups. Within the framework of international law, the State has worked with Colombian authorities on actions within the laws of the two countries and human rights. Unfortunately, this bilateral cooperation does not apply to the facts described, which therefore means the violation of the territorial integrity and the legal system in Ecuador.

The National Government will send today a strongly worded protest to the Government of Colombia for the flagrant violation of the territory of the Republic of Ecuador, which constitutes a violation of the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity contained in international law. Ecuador will demand from Colombia an explanation for the abuses of its military forces, will require a formal apology for what has happened and, for any possible damage to people and property of residents within Ecuadorian territory, require the payment of appropriate compensation. If appropriate, Ecuador will approach international bodies to seek assurances that its inhabitants and the country's territorial integrity and sovereign rights are protected.

The Government of Ecuador is deeply disappointed by the actions of the Colombian forces. At the same time, it rejects the presence of Colombian irregular groups in the country, in violation of the laws of Ecuador. The Government of Ecuador reiterates its firm decision not to allow the territory of the nation to be used by others to carry out military operations or to use as a base of operations, as part of the Colombian conflict. Ecuador will use all available security resources to prevent these circumstances from recurring. No regular or irregular military force can act on the territory of Ecuador, in accordance with its right to self-defence and security, without being repelled, captured and put to justice in for intruding with arms on the territory of the country or establishing therein activities outside the law.


The Government of Ecuador once again calls for a peaceful solution to the internal conflict in Colombia, within the laws of that country and with respect for human rights and international humanitarian law. We call for the irregular groups and Colombian state to find the path towards a political understanding to prevent the consequences of violence to Colombian society. In the same vein, and for eminently humanitarian reasons, we hope for the early release of the hostages held by the irregular groups and the guarantee of their well-being. The Republic of Ecuador will remain evet-ready to contribute in every effort for peace and humanitarian understanding in Colombia. / Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Saturday, March 1, 2008

Ecuador recalls ambassador to Colombia for consultations after death of "Reyes" in the country

Via El Tiempo, 2 March, 2008

The move was announced by President Rafael Correa, who warned that he will risk "the ultimate consequences in order to clarify this outrageous act that is an attack on our territory".

He added that "The president (Alvaro Uribe) or was either misinformed, or he blatantly lied to the president of Ecuador (...). We are lodging a strong note of protest".

He also said: "If we can find no conclusive evidence or explanations showing that President Uribe was misled or that evidence is clear for all the world to see that he has once again lied to the Ecuadorian government and that he has no scruples regarding our territory ... I repeat: we will risk the ultimate consequences, but we will not allow even one more outrage.''

The Colombian authorities claimed that the camp where "Reyes" was was located 1.8 kilometres on the Ecuadorian side of the border.

For these reasons, Correa recalled his ambassador in Colombia, Francisco Suéscum Ottati .

"They were massacred as they slept"

Correa explained that according to the Ecuadorian army, they found, at the scene of battle (near the town of Angostura, 250 kilometres northeast of Quito and 130 kilometres from the border with Peru) that ''there was no sign of pursuit.''

The guerrillas were "bombed and massacred as they slept, using advanced technology (...) probably with the
collaboration of foreign powers'", said Correa.

He also said that a military patrol that went to the area found 15 of the guerrilla's corpses, and 2 wounded guerrillas in a makeshift camp ... in Ecuadorian territory (...) and that the corpses were wearing pyjamas''.

According to the Ecuadorian head of state, it was a "temporary camp of the Colombian guerrillas (...) Colombia clearly invaded Ecuadorian airspace (...) and then came to take the body of "Raul Reyes"' ".

The President described the incident as "a real blow to the civilised relationship that fraternal countries sharing a border should have".

"Bombing the most serious attack on the sovereignty of Ecuador this century"

"The bombing the most serious attack on the sovereignty of Ecuador this century" according to Ecuador's Security Minister, Gustavo Larrea.

According to Larrea, "there is a history of an armed incursion by one state (Colombia) against the other sovereign state (Ecuador) with no respect for any international procedure, just such as has happened this morning (Saturday)," he added.

Following the statements by Correa, the defense minister of Ecuador, Wellington Sandoval, added that the military forces of Ecuador are "on alert" on the border with Colombia and "ready to repel any external aggression."

He assured that the Ecuadorian military played no role in the attacks.

''This is an area of very thick jungle and of course our troops were not present there. It is impossible to have troops along the entire border,''he said.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia said that tonight there would be a response by the minister of Foreign Relations, Fernando Araujo.

The Ecuadorian border was closed on "Reyes"

Highflying aircraft bombed their camp. His death is the biggest blow struck to the FARC in 44 years of armed conflict.

The most significant blow to the FARC had received throughout its history, the killing of "Raul Reyes" yesterday on the border with Ecuador, followed several events this week.

On Wednesday, police intelligence returned to "listening in" to some communications, which had reappeared after two months of silence.

That signal complemented valuable information obtained by the Dijín in another operation on Monday when another blow was struck against the FARC: the capture of "Martín Sombra", one of the 'historic guerrillas' at Saboyá (Boyacá).

In addition, this week the network responsible for the security of "Reyes" was thwarted in the border area. In Piñuña Black, jurisdiction of Puerto Leguizamo (Putumayo), several of them were arrested .

Among them was alias "Martha", the sister of Rubin Castaneda, the head of the Front.

That was the group responsible for ensuring, with payment, the tranquil movement of "Raul Reyes" around the border.

These captures were key in verifying reports on the presence of the guerrilla chief in several FARC camps that were distributed on both sides of the border and also forced him to move, because he had not received the money sent him every week by secretariat.

Data from human sources, alongside intelligence techniques, enabled tracing of the increasingly sporadic communications of "Reyes", and air power decided the fate of the first member of the FARC secretariat to die in a military action of the Colombian State.

In the words of an official source, data on the movements of '"Reyes" were so accurate that they were only waiting for "his nose to stick out" to start the operation. And that happened after midnight on Friday.

Yesterday, when he announced to the country that the troops were the bodies of "Reyes" and "Julián Conrado" (a very popular commander in the FARC because he was one of the guerrillas' singers) Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos confirmed information which has caused ongoing friction with Quito: that there are subversive camps in Ecuadorian territory.

According to minister Santos, the Government learned that "Reyes" had come to a camp of the 48th Front in the site of Grenada last night.

At 12:25 am yesterday, several Air Force planes left bases in the south of the country with a clearly defined goal.

The planes flew only at 2 thousand feet high. Cluster bombs were used on the targets defined by the intelligence.

At the same time, several battalions entered the area by helicopter, but were met with heavy fire coming from across the border. These bullets killed the professional soldier Carlos Hernandez Leon.

This second camp was 1,800 meters inside the Ecuadorian territory, in a place known as Santa Rosa. The aircraft fire was then directed there, but the minister said that the river Putumayo was not crossed. The aim? "Powerfully responding fire and neutralising the enemy."

It was, to quote a high source, a "surgical operation" with the participation of all security agencies.

A joint command of the Police and Navy crossed the border. Some stayed to maintain control of the site until they had contacted representatives of the Ecuadorian authorities, who were immediately informed of the facts.

What the troops found was reported immediately to Bogota, where every detail was described to the millimetre: they found the bodies of 17 guerrillas, including two of the most wanted: Édgar Luis Devia, the man who in the world of war was known as "Raul Reyes", and Guillermo Enrique Torres, "Julian Conrado", of the FARC.

According to a high source who participated in the successful operation, "Reyes" had a Rolex watch and the state of his body allowed its immediate identification.

The body's 1.55 metres in height and the scars on his forehead and left index finger match. He also had a tattoo. He wore a T-shirt with the face of Manuel Marulanda, as shown in the photos first revealed yesterday in the afternoon by eltiempo.com.

Intelligence sources ensured that a young guerrilla who had become his partner in recent months also died.

The death of "Conrado" is also very symbolic. He had been in the thematic committees during negotiations at Caguan and was now the ideologist of the 48th Front. He was the director of the Voice of the Resistance, the FARC's network of clandestine stations, and the Government of the EU had also placed a price on his head: $ 2.5 million.

$ 5 million was offered for "Reyes", and it was assessed yesterday whether that money would be handed over to sources in the border area, who allowed the authorities to strike the historic coup, which joins others such as bombings against "Acacio Negro" and "Martín Caballero".

25 arrest warrants have been issued, and several convictions were pending against "Raul Reyes". He was one of the masterminds of the strategy to kidnap politicians to pressure the so-called humanitarian exchange.

2 thousand feet was the height at which armed aircraft of the Air Force bombed the camp where the chief guerrilla "Raul Reyes" and his men were.

Evidence of the importance of Ecuador to the FARC

In fact, two of the harshest blows to the guerrillas in recent years have occurred south of the border.

On January 2, 2004, in an operation which was supported by the Ecuadorian authorities, Ricardo Ovidio Palmera Pineda, known as' Simon Trinidad ', was captured - one of the 22 members of the so-called general staff of the FARC.

His capture occurred in the touristy Amazonas Avenue in the Ecuadorian capital.

Like other guerrilla leaders, "Trinidad" had legal documents issued in that country. They were in the name of Cristo Rey Mariscal Peralta.

According to intelligence reports of the police and the Colombian Army, "Simon Trinidad" sought refuge there often, and was even receiving medical treatment.

But "Trinidad", catalogued as a big fish of the FARC, was not the only one who crossed the boundary line, about 600 kilometres long, often.

Intelligence agencies in Colombia have also discovered information to the effect that Ecuador is the meeting point between leaders of the guerrillas and their families.

"Rodrigo Granda" was supposed to be there when he was captured in Venezuela in 2004. The guerrilla, who was released by the government Uribe last year, depended directly on "Reyes" and moved easily between Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.

Furthermore, we know that the other side of the border contacts are made for purchase of armament and kitchenware. Information to this effect was given this week by Luis Eladio Perez, the nariño leader released last Wednesday after more than six years of captivity.

He recounted how the rubber boots used by the FARC units operating in the south are made in Ecuador. "I slept in camps in that country," said Perez.

Drawing on a border marked by jungle and rivers, all illegal groups are believed to move through the area. The Farc have used it to traffick large quantities of drugs through the region for years.

The Armed Forces have also alleged that several operations against the FARC fronts, especially the 48th, have ended with the passage of the guerrillas into the neighbouring territory, where they have camps and guard coca crops.

For its part, the Ecuadorian authorities also complain about the presence of guerrillas in the area and the alleged lack of control by the Colombian authorities.

This has caused diplomatic friction between the leaders of the two countries.

Villagers have also complained of damage caused during the fighting.

However, in this latest blow, the authorities and governments seem to be coordinated. Moreover, it comes at a time of relatively calm in the relations between Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, and Alvaro Uribe Velez.

Even the international conflict, because of the fumigation of illicit crops by Colombia, affecting farmers in Ecuador, is virtually frozen.

Quito
With EFE and AP

Ecuador's president protests Colombian incursion

QUITO, Ecuador (AP): President Rafael Correa announced Saturday that Ecuador will send a diplomatic note to protest Colombia's military incursion into Ecuador.

Correa questioned whether Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had been honest with him when he first informed him of the raid.

``The (Colombian) president either was poorly informed or brazenly lied to the president of Ecuador,'' Correa said. ``We are going until the ultimate consequences for a clarification of these scandalous actions that are an aggression on our territory.''

Ecuador: Petroecuador Could Lower Oil Production By Sunday

QUITO -(Dow Jones via CNNmoney.com) Feb 29- State oil company Petroecuador will lower its oil production if the SOTE pipeline is not fixed by Sunday, the company said in a statement Friday.

"If the emergency continues, starting on Sunday, Petroecuador will begin to lower the output," the statement said.

Normally Petroecuador produces around 177,000 barrels per day of Oriente crude. Additionally Petroecuador produces around 90,000 barrels per day of Napo crude from Occidental Petroleum Corporation's (OXY) former fields.

Late Thursday, Petroecuador declared the SOTE pipeline to be in a state of emergency because of a rupture caused by a landslide and suspended the pipeline's operations to prevent more infrastructure damage.

Simultaneously, Petroecuador told oil buyers by telephone that it had declared "force majeure" for its exports.

Friday, Energy Minister Galo Chiriboga told Dow Jones Newswires that the government declared force majeure only for its Oriente crude oil exports, not for Napo crude.

According to official data reviewed by Dow Jones Newswires, a shipment of 418, 000 barrels, which left from Balao, was reduced Thursday to 360,000 barrels.

A high-level official said the next shipments could be delayed by three or four days, depending on when SOTE, the nation's main pipeline, resumes operations.

The first shipments that will be delayed are 400,000 barrels that were due Friday, Feb. 29, for Agip SpA, and 360,000 barrels for Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) due March 1.

Petroecuador's international trade management unit notified 11 buyers of Oriente Crude about the force majeure, which implies that the company will defer the date of shipments.

Normally, Petroecuador exports around 120,000 barrels a day of Oriente Crude and 60,000 barrels a day of Napo Crude.

A force majeure is a contractual clause that protects one of the parties from liability if it can't meet obligations due to factors beyond its control.

SOTE normally transports some 350,000 barrels of oil a day from Amazonia to the maritime port of Balao in Esmeraldas province. This includes state oil output and that of Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), Chinese Andes Petroleum, Agip and other private companies.