MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia-Ecuador conflict could filter EU-Latam summit

Latin American and European leaders are gathering in Lima, Peru on Friday for a much publicized summit which is scheduled to address climate change, high food prices and poverty. However an issue not included in the agenda could break into the meeting: Colombia's raid on a rebel camp inside Ecuador last early March.

In effect Interpol is expected to announce the results of an investigation into allegations that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa collaborated with the Marxist oriented, drug trade financed Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC. Chavez, Correa and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe are all expected to attend the Lima summit of nearly 60 leaders and top officials from Latin America, Europe and the Caribbean. Colombia says it found documents pointing to a connection between the two leftist presidents and the FARC on laptops belonging to FARC leader Raul Reyes, who was killed in the March first cross-border raid. Both Chavez and Correa deny the claims. Correa even cast doubt on the authenticity of the computers, suggesting they may have been planted by the Colombians. The raid prompted Correa to sever diplomatic relations with Uribe's government. In a European tour this week, Correa said he would consider restoring ties only if Uribe halts "Colombia's verbal aggression." "They already assaulted us with bombs," he said. "Now they're assaulting us with words". Peruvian ambassador Ricardo Vega Llona, who organized this week's event, said public displays of anger ? such as when King Juan Carlos of Spain told Chavez to "why don't you shut up" at a Chilean summit six months ago ? are unlikely this time since the meeting's working sessions will be private. "We want to make Latin America a trustworthy ally in the struggle against global warming," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Wednesday after meeting with Peruvian President Alan Garcia. The EC plans to announce EuroClima, a 7.7 million Euros fund for Latin American projects aimed at stemming climate change. President Garcia and other Latinamerican leaders are expected to raise the issue of soaring food prices and their impact on efforts to reduce poverty. "We have to turn our eyes to food production and leave aside or regulate this change in the use of land to produce ethanol, which is causing great world damage," Garcia said in an interview. Biofuel production should not come at the expense of the environment, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned as she began a Latin America tour Wednesday in Brazil, the planet's chief ethanol exporter. Some worry that increased farming of bio-fuels threatens the Amazon