MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Andean countries shake hands; hope for hostages' release

The official photo

The presidents of Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia shook hands on Friday at the Rio Group regional summit, marking the end of a diplomatic crisis in the Andean region and the opening of a fresh start in an area plagued by irregular forces.

The crisis had been triggered by a cross-border raid by Colombian troops into Ecuador to attack FARC rebels and kill their number two leader.

This was followed by mutual recriminations between presidents Rafael Correa from Ecuador and Colombia's Alvaro Uribe and the breaking of diplomatic relations of Ecuador and Venezuela with Colombia. Earlier there had been heated exchanges between the heads of state at the Rio Group summit in the Dominican Republic. The summit of Latin American leaders had originally been planned to discuss energy and other issues. Venezuela and Ecuador cut diplomatic ties with Bogota and sent troops to their borders after the Colombian operation which left 20 FARC rebels dead, including a senior FARC commander, Raul Reyes. As the summit debate unfolded, Colombia's Defence minister announced that another rebel leader, Ivan Rios, had been killed - this time on Colombian soil and at the hands of his own men. Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega, who had also broken off diplomatic ties with Colombia, said they would be re-established after the presidents shook hands. The handshakes were broadcast live on television across Latin America in response to a special request from the summit's host, Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe had clashed at the opening of the summit. Mr Correa condemned Colombia's "aggression", while Mr Uribe accused his opposite number of having links with the FARC rebels. The Colombian president said he had not warned Ecuador before the raid because Mr Correa had not co-operated in the fight against terrorism. He also claimed material seized in the operation proved links between Mr Correa's government and the rebels. Mr Correa rejected the claims, saying his hands were not "stained with blood". He admitted there had been communications with FARC, but only because his government was trying to secure the release of hostages held by the rebels, including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. But before shaking hands, to applause from the summit delegates, Mr Correa said: "With the commitment of never attacking a brother country again and by asking forgiveness, we can consider this very serious incident resolved". He also insisted that the expansion of Colombia's internal conflict was turning its neighboring countries in victims. The summit outcome will put more pressure on the cocaine funded Marxist oriented FARC rebel group to release the dozens of hostages it has held for years, some of which are known to be in very precarious health conditions. Peace, reconciliation, multilateralism and the humanitarian release of hostages were at the heart of the debate which finally helped reach a fragile understanding. Colombia apologized, but was not condemned, Ecuador and Venezuela admitted the existence of FARC encampments on their soil and the fact that they do not consider them terrorists (as does the EU, US and Canada) but rather insurgents. Colombia promised to share all the information from captured laptops at the attacked encampment, including with the UN and OAS, and promised to continue facilitating the process of humanitarian release of hostages. However Uribe was adamant in underlining that the forty year old FARC is a terrorist group that kills, attacks, kidnaps, tortures and violates human rights and that all previous peace attempts by previous Colombian presidents had been betrayed and taken advantage off by FARC rebels, particularly Raul Reyes, killed on Ecuadorian soil. Uribe also argued that legitimate elected authorities in a democracy, have the obligation of protecting their people's human rights, and asked for such a point, or the spirit of, to be included in the final resolution. Although Brazilian president Lula da Silva was represented by Foreign Secretary Celso Amorim, the influence and strategy of Itamaraty was evident in having the sides reconcile or rather to return to the point they stood at before the crisis was triggered. In a concerted (and prepared) effort with Mexico, Argentina, Chile and the host Dominican Republic, the heated recriminations and at times offensive language was put back on rail by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner who then went on lecture on the importance of "multilateralism" for the region and the fact that the dispute was actually triggered when the announcement and release of hostages by FARC begun. Venezuela's firebrand Hugo Chavez made an anecdotal speech with anti Uribe stings but more reconciliation messages which helped defuse the atmosphere and Celso Amorim spoke about the rapidly narrowing path to peace which had to be taken advantage off. He apologized for the absence of President Lula da Silva who was launching Brazil's independence bicentennial celebrations but also underlined the president's sadness and pain about what was happening. From Venezuela's Chavez to Argentina's Mrs. Kirchner all are somehow in debt with Brazil and it's better to deal and follow a Brazilian velvet suggestion than allow a dispute to become intractable or a stalemate, thus giving Washington an opportunity "to interfere" in regional affairs.