MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

S. American leaders want to mediate in Colombia conflict

The killing of a Colombian guerrilla leader by Colombian forces in Ecuadorian territory and the alleged discovery of documents linking the rebel group with the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela has pushed South America closer to an armed conflict.

Latinamerican countries have urged Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela to seek a diplomatic solution to the crisis and called for emergency meetings of regional organizations such as Mercosur, OAS, CAN to address the escalating conflict. Several countries including Spain have offered to mediate. It all happened early Saturday morning when Colombian special forces in helicopters made an incursion in Ecuadorian territory and killed the rebel group FARC number 2 Raul Reyes, plus 16 other guerrillas, plus capturing several lap tops and documents with "highly sensitive" information. Venezuela and Ecuador reactions were to cut relations with Colombia and send troops to the border areas. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez called Colombian president Alvaro Uribe a "criminal, Mafioso, warmonger, US lackey" among other epithets while Ecuador's Rafael Correa accused Uribe of "flagrantly violating Ecuadorian sovereignty" and a "liar" for having misled him about the whole operation. From Bogota Foreign Affairs minister Fernando Araujo apologized saying Colombia "never wanted to disrespect or violate the sovereignty or integrity of the sister republic of Ecuador". Other Colombian officials argued the country has the right to a "legitimate defense" from armed groups that have for years attacked civilians and "fighting terrorism" is a priority for Colombia. The head of Colombia's National Police Oscar Naranjo revealed that the personal laptop from Reyes rescued from the camp attacked in Ecuador showed the close links of the FARC guerrilla with the governments of Ecuador, Venezuela and even significant financial support from the Chavez regime. Apparently the recent (and future) release of hostages held for years by FARC, which were liberated with the mediation of Chavez involves an operation of 300 million US dollars which is to be handed to the guerrilla group and disbursed by the Venezuelan government. Naranjo pointed at Ecuadorian Internal Security minister as the liaison with Mr. Reyes. According to the Colombians the hard disk information also includes a letter from then Colonel Chavez who in 1992 organized a failed coup in Venezuela, thanking FARC for the 50.000 US dollars he received at that time. Colombia has offered to have the lap tops and other sensitive data recovered, monitored by multilateral organizations such as the UN or the OAS. President Uribe said he would not escalate the situation by sending troops to the border areas with Ecuador and Venezuela. There was no immediate reply to the Colombian accusations but both Ecuador and Venezuela insisted that the issue is the "flagrant incursion, violation of Ecuador's sovereignty and territorial integrity". Ecuadorian president said the rebels did not die in combat but "were bombed and massacred as they slept, using precision technology". "It's a bunch of lies" said Ecuadorian Deputy Defence minister Miguel Carbajal. On Sunday President Chavez, who has been mediating with FARC to try to free hostages held by the rebels, called Reyes a "good revolutionary" and called the attack "a cowardly murder, all of it coldly calculated". From Paris French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said the death of Reyes was "bad news", as he had been France's contact in its efforts to free French-Colombian FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt. "It is bad news that the man we were talking to, with whom we had contacts, has been killed," Mr Kouchner said on France Inter radio. Ms Betancourt has been held for six years and is said to be in very poor health. Six hostages have been released since Mr Chavez began efforts to win their freedom. From Cuba, ailing leader Fidel Castro wrote a column saying that trumpets of war are in the air, in South America, promoted by the genocide US government. Colombia which is the US closest ally in the region, has received massive military and financial aid to fight the Marxist oriented guerrilla FARC group and the cocaine war lords who help finance the rebels by paying for protection.