MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador challenges Bush to send US troops or “shut up”

Pte. Correa: “Bring your soldiers Mr. Bush”

Ecuador's president challenged US President George W. Bush to send troops to the Andean nation's border with Colombia “or shut your mouth” following on further claims that his country is a sanctuary for the cocaine funded Colombian rebel group FARC.

Rafael Correa made the comments late Thursday in angry response to Bush's strong support for Colombia after it raided a rebel camp on Ecuadorian soil on March first, an act that Correa denounced as an attack on his country's sovereignty. "Bring your soldiers Mr. Bush," Correa said during a heated speech late Thursday. "Let it be your soldiers who die along the southern border with Colombia. We'll see if the Americans, the citizens of the United States will accept tremendous atrocity. If not, shut your mouth and understand what is happening in Latin America". Ecuador has repeatedly said it is the victim of a spillover of violence from Colombia's long armed conflict. Colombian officials complain that Ecuador hasn't done enough to keep rebels from hiding in its territory. Correa since taking office in 2007 has called for international forces to patrol the joint Ecuadorian/Colombian border. "I have 11.000 forces deployed along the jungle area, it costs Ecuadorians over a hundred million US dollars annually which could be invested more productively", argues Correa. After Colombia's raid earlier this month, Correa and his close ally, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, severed or curtailed relations with Bogota and sent troops to their borders with Colombia. The three leaders sparred verbally at a Latin American summit, then stiffly shook hands in a sign they would put the feud behind them. But Correa clearly remains angry over the raid, as well as over Colombian allegations that documents found on a rebel leader's laptop computer show Correa's administration cooperating with the guerrillas in some areas and that the rebels had contributed to Correa's campaign. Correa underlines that some international media which defend the interests of Bogotá and Washington are pushing for Ecuador to get militarily involved in the Colombian dispute with FARC in spite of the fact his government has declared itself neutral in the conflict. Earlier this week President Bush addressing the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce criticized Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez over his response to the cross-border raid by Colombian troops into Ecuador which killed a FARC leader. Bush said that Mr. Chavez's ordering of Venezuelan troops to their border with Colombia was "the latest step in a disturbing pattern of provocative behavior by the regime in Caracas". "It has also called for FARC terrorists to be recognized as a legitimate army, and senior regime officials have met with FARC leaders in Venezuela" Mr. Bush said.